Black Widow's Runtime Clocks In At Just Over Two Hours

Black Widow, the next MCU movie set to release in theaters, will have a runtime of two hours and 13 minutes, according to Disney's UK site. This is hopefully the start of a trend of MCU movies coming more and more into focus, as opposed to the 2020 trend of delays and deferrals. Provided Black Widow indeed comes out as currently expected on May 7, 2021, that release date alone represents the film coming out a full year after it was originally expected and then pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Black Widow is a prequel, and as anyone who's seen Avengers: Endgame knows, star Scarlett Johansson is unlikely to return for many more Marvel films. Fortunately, Black Widow is just a codename for a group of highly trained Russian agents, and this film is expected to tell their story, which is set at some point after the events of 2016's Captain America: Civil War. Aside from the fuzziest of plot points, the movie seems to be about Johansson's character, Natasha Romanoff, confronting her history as a spy and the broken relationships she left behind to become an Avenger.

Black Widow is directed by Cate Shortland (Berlin Syndrome) and comes from a screenplay by Eric Pearson (Thor: Ragnarok). In addition to Johansson, the film's cast includes Florence Pugh (Midsommar), David Harbour (Suicide Squad), and William Hurt (Captain America: Civil War).

Due to tons of delays last year, MCU Phase 4 was kicked off in 2021 with WandaVision, the weird new Disney+ superhero sitcom with a twist. Like Black Widow, the show is a masterclass in showing that even if a character meets their untimely end in the MCU, it is still possible to live on. You can read our review of WandaVision here, and read up on what's ahead for Phase 4 here. And don't forget to celebrate--the drought is ending!