Last Friday, ComicBookMovie.com was among the outlets present for Black Widow's virtual press conference. Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, Rachel Weisz, David Harbour, director Cate Shortland, and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige were all in attendance, and we'll have more highlights to share with you very soon.
In the meantime, one particularly interesting tidbit saw Harbour talk about Red Guardian's perceived rivalry with Captain America (they've never met) and whether that's something he hopes to explore on screen in the coming years.
"Of course," he said when asked if he'd like to like to shoot the Russian hero's "fight" with Captain America. "What’s funny about Alexei is you have this 25-year gap we don’t know about. We see him in the prison. And even before the prison, there was a time when he was the Red Guardian, he must have put the suit back on. There is this period of time where he has all these stories about his life and about what went on. It's questionable whether or not they’re real. I like the exploration of what is real and what isn't real. And how hard he had to construct these realities for himself and how durable those realities are."
As for what excites him about exploring this dynamic, Harbour added: "I do think the classic Cold War thing is a really fun and funny dynamic between these two guys and the fact that they basically came up like nuclear warheads in an arms race together. I think it’s just a really great concept that could be explored further."
Later, the actor was asked who he'd like to team up with in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The conversation once again returned to Captain America, albeit the version played by Anthony Mackie.
"I mean, I don’t know if it’s team up with, but I really love the Falcon character," Harbour started. "I love Anthony Mackie just as an actor too. And now that he’s wearing the Cap suit and everything and the amount of complexity that Alexei has with Cap in general. Whoever wears the suit, like he hates that guy and he hates what it represents."
"Some of the funniest stuff to me [in the movie] is where he’s like, 'You know he actually was a colleague of mine I mean I know we had a lot of respect for each other.' I just think that that dynamic would be really fun."
In the movie, Scarlett Johansson reprises her role as Natasha/Black Widow, Florence Pugh stars as Yelena, David Harbour portrays Alexei/The Red Guardian, and Rachel Weisz is Melina. Black Widow is directed by Cate Shortland and produced by Kevin Feige; Black Widow - the first big screen story in Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe - arrives on July 9th both in theaters and on Disney+.