14 Black Widow Fan Theories That Actually Make A Lot Of Sense

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The MCU is one of the biggest superhero franchises in history. With over twenty films, countless interesting characters, and so much source material to pull from, it’s no question as to why. One of fandoms’ favorite things to do is come up with fan theories, and when it comes to the MCU there are certainly a lot of them. From questions unanswered to character quirks, we managed to round up some of the most interesting fan theories surrounding Black Widow.

Which Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow fan theory do you think is most believable? Vote up your favorites below!

Hulk Knew He Couldn’t Bring Back Natasha Because He Met Her In The Soul World

Think about it….. we’ve only seen the soul stone used a couple of times; Thanos wiping out half the universe… and as soon as he does that, he has a moment in the soul world with the one he loves (Gamora: “did you do it?” etc) When the Hulk used it to bring everyone back. When Iron Man used it to get rid of Thanos and his army. We then see in a ‘deleted scene’ that Tony has a conversation in the soul world with his loved one (his daughter, all grown up).

So, going back to number two: doesn’t it make sense that Hulk got to meet his loved one in the soul world after he used the stones? Especially when we consider that he told Cap that he tried to bring her back. How does he know he didn’t!? Everyone appeared exactly where they were when they were dusted, maybe she came back to life there! But no, Hulk KNOWS she didn’t… how could he KNOW? Did Dr Strange go to Vormir and see if she was around? It’s possible, but did he chat to Hulk about it? Also, consider that Thanos meets Gamora in the soul world; because her soul maybe lives there now due to the sacrifice. The same could be said for Nat?

Natasha’s Fluctuating Personality Is Because She Doesn’t Know Who She Really Is

TL;DR: After years of pretending to be other people, Natalia Romanov doesn’t know who she is as a person and is therefore experimenting, so to speak.

Throughout the various Marvel movies, everything about Black Widow, from her personality to her love interests to her hair style has varied. When we first meet her, she has long curly hair, and is a general badass with little personality. In Avengers, her hair is shortened, she there are some undertones between her and Hawkeye and we finally see her as a woman who has come to regret many of the things that she’s done. In Winter Soldier, she has long straight hair, occasionally flirts Steve and is something of a yenta, giving Steve dating advice (in an airplane, right before they’re about to take down a boat full of terrorists). And by Age of Ultron, she’s back to her short curly hair and is something a den mother and also has feelings for Bruce. So why all of this change?

Well, fact of the matter is, Natalia Romanov has spent so much of her life pretending to be other people that she doesn’t really know who Natalia Romanov.

Nebula Suggested Natasha And Clint For The Soul Stone Because She Knew They Cared For Each Other

How big of a coincidence it was that Clint and Natasha were the two people to get the Soul Stone. The Soul Stone requires someone to sacrifice the one they love most, in this case Clint reluctantly sacrificing Natasha. I wouldn’t call those two going there a coincidence. Nebula was the only remaining Avenger that knew how to get the Soul Stone. In the 5 year gap, we see that her and Rocket were in regular contact with Natasha; while Natasha was still trying to find Clint. My theory, which admittedly isn’t very groundbreaking, is that Nebula suggested that Clint and Natasha fetch the Soul Stone, since she witnessed how close they were. They are two of the perfect candidates to retrieve it.

Lots of people have brought up that Nebula didn’t know how to retrieve the Soul Stone. This is admittedly an assumption on my part that she did. In my defense though, she processes Gamora’s death as “He took her to Vormir. He came back with the Soul Stone. She didn’t.” I read that line as Nebula realizing the sacrifice that had to be made. Tony heard it too. “Whatever it takes”

Black Widow’s Greatest Fear Was That She Could Never Become A Mother

Ok so if you rewatch Avengers and Loki and Nat’s interaction. He uses the terms “Can you wipe out that much red. Dreykov’s Daughter. Sãu Paulo. The Hospital Fire. Barton told me everything”. We thought Natasha was Dreykov’s daughter.But in Endgame we heard Redskull say “Welcome. Natasha, Daughter of Ivan”.

In Age of ultron when Wanda did that mind control thing on her she saw her sterilization ceremony. “You think you’re the only monster on the team” Says Natasha to Bruce when he talks about je can’t have kids. Natasha had been pregnant with someone named Dreykov. But the red room aborted her. Made her sterile. She was so furious that she burned down the Hospital. Got under Shield’s radar and they sent Clint to bring her down. Then something happened in Budapest. A war. Between the Red Room and Sheild. Widow helped Clint. That was the turning point. Thats why Clint brought her in instead of killing her.

She set a whole Hospital on fire because they killed her daughter. “Can you wipe out that much red. Dreykov’s Daughter. Sãu Paulo. The Hospital Fire.”

Natasha Is So Interested In Steve’s Love Life Because She Was Told To Be

Black Widow keeps trying to talk him into getting into the dating scene. He’s all “geez what’s your deal with being so nosy about my love life” or words to that effect. My initial though when I saw the movie was that Natasha views Steve with an affectionate, little brother type of feel. She wants to see him get back into the world and she thinks he needs to move on from being hung up on Peggy. But maybe Natasha wants Steve to start dating in the hopes that he’ll knock someone up. Since the death of Erskine, the US government has spent seven decades failing to recreate his formula. Maybe SHIELD wants Cap to have an heir in the hopes that his gifts will be carried over into a kid. This would give them a chance to look into genetic markers so they could figure out how to engineer a super soldier serum.

The “nurse” that Natasha keeps recommending turns out to be Sharon or Agent 13. It might not be too far a stretch to say that SHIELD wants Steve to procreate on his own terms. If they approached him with a request to give up some of his semen for testing, he’d probably balk at the idea. If Steve were to naturally fall in love with a woman who happens to have the perfect background to be enamored with him (or is under specific orders to seduce him) they can get a bloodline without Steve feeling forced into through obligation.

Natasha Was Steve’s First Kiss Since Peggy Carter

On the car ride to Camp Leigh Natasha asks Steve if their kiss at the mall was his first one since 1945. Although Steve claims it wasn’t evidence points towards the alternative. Captain America was defrosted in 2011, although it had been nearly seventy years since the plane crash, to him it feels like only yesterday. This means that he probably hasn’t completely gotten over Peggy and most likely wouldn’t start dating again for a little while. Keep in mind by 2014, during the events of the Winter Soldier, he was only just starting to get back into the dating business when he asks Sharon out for coffee, which she rejects. To me it seems unlikely that there would be any woman between this timeframe of 2011-2014 as not only would he have to get over Peggy but he would also have to juggle working with shield, catching up on what he missed, and fighting alongside his fellow Avengers. Are we really supposed to believe that he did all of this while dating (keeping in mind that he is notoriously slow on making the first move), I don’t think so. One theory is that this supposed kiss was between him and Peggy after he returned. I doubt this to be the case however as she has gotten married and has aged much faster than Cap, not to mention in the scene that we see between the two of them there was no hint of romantic chemistry between them anymore.

The Avengers Gave Natasha A Private Funeral

Why the Black Widow’s death was ‘forgotten’ in Endgame. Natasha had dozens, if not hundreds of enemies who would happily drop an Atom Bomb on her funeral, on the off chance that it would hurt her in the afterlife. Clint knew this, and instead brought together a few of her closest friends in secret. They drank a toast and Clint told the story of how she died. He then told them that they had to find another dozen or so friends and re-tell the tale. I especially like the idea of Dr. Strange and T’Challah cracking a bottle with Peter Parker and his friends.

Black Widow Is The Reason Why There Was A Civil War

Black Widow inadvertently is the reason why Zemo was able to create the conflict between the avengers during Civil War. Even though Zemo’s plan was very random and was based on pure luck, knowing about the winter soldier, the red Hydra book that contains the words that trigger Bucky, and info about the other winter soldiers, the base that held them, his plan wouldn’t have been made if Black Widow hadn’t exposed Shield and Hydra, leaking all the files on the internet. Zemo himself said so when he found the Hydra Colonel. “When S.H.I.E.L.D. fell… Black Widow released HYDRA files to the public. Millions of pages. Much of it encrypted. Not easy to decipher. But, I have experience. And patience.”

Natasha And Steve End Up Together

“You wanna tell me about her?” “No I don’t think I will”

Am I the only one that seemed a little suspicious of this line? It was no secret how he felt about Peggy, I mean he carried around a photo of her, so why not talk about her? However if he ended up with black widow (as per my theory) and told falcon all about her, it is quite obvious how shocking and upsetting this news would be for everyone. They’ve already mourned for her, and there’s a couple of people (Like banner) that cared for her so dearly that they would be quite upset with cap if he ‘kept her all for himself’. But I think he did. The Hulk tried to bring back Nat with the stones, he said so himself. I believe he actually succeeded. The problem is that everyone who was ‘wished back’ was brought back to the location they ‘died’ or were ‘erased’ etc. This would bring Nat back to Vormir. So why didn’t Dr Strange just pop by to pick her up for the big fight? Maybe he didn’t know she was there, and didn’t bother stopping by – but maybe he did, and it still didn’t matter, BECAUSE: she died in a different reality.

Remember: she sacrificed herself in the past, which then split into a separate timeline. The stones may be powerful enough to deliver Banner’s wish across realities, but unfortunately she would remain on Vormir in that separate reality – until GUESS WHO pops by: Cap, returning the soul stone. That’s right, he traveled back to that exact reality where she sacrificed herself, went to Vormir, and found her there. Now sure, he probably didn’t tie the knot with her there and then, I’m sure he went back to the other timeline to be with Peggy, and we then see him dancing with her etc BUT – if I know Cap, two things wouldn’t sit right with him in this world… He already knows Peggy falls in love and marries someone else if he isn’t in the picture (museum scene in Winter Soldier) Would he want to stand in the way of that? Wouldn’t Nat be more suited to settle down with? Agent Carter is just getting started with a lifetime of adventures and missions, and Cap wants to settle down. By staying with Peggy, he’s depriving her of the best life she could live, AND the man she may end up marrying (even in this other reality). Hydra, Thanos etc are all still threats in this world, and cap may have to exit his retirement to help out on some potentially repetitive missions. Or, just sit back and let them happen without him? No, that’s not his style…

BUT – Black widow’s new reality has NO THANOS, and not only that, it has a duplicate Nat AND Cap to do their missions as normal while ‘older’ cap and Nat can actually retire. They’ve been through enough shit together, have both expressed an interest in retiring (even Nat suggested this to hulk in age of ultron), and even if their relationship didn’t begin as romantic, maybe they were just two good old tired best buds that have been through it all, and landed in the perfect universe to retire in. It probably blossomed into a romance over the years, and – most importantly – is obviously too complicated in many many ways for cap to justify not telling Falcon about it.

Natasha And Clint Have Different Fighting Styles And Shouldn’t Work As Partners

TL;DR: Nat enjoys getting into sticky situations/fighting, it’s all the same, just another day for her. Clint is the opposite, clearly acknowledging when one situation is obviously worse/more life-threatening than a previous because he just wants to see his family again.

Pretty sure it’s a throwaway line to show their differing personalities.Natasha, being the “thrill seeker” killer type (or used to be) who enjoys that kind of work remembers Budapest fondly, assuming it was some kind of mission/war zone since she referred to it during a time they were in the middle of a war with the Chituari. I.E: It’s all just war/fighting to her.

Clint, being more of a family man who only is part of SHIELD/Avengers as a job, remembers it badly but not as bad as the Chituari war (since I doubt they’d of been fighting a militia of aliens from space led by a Norse demi-God.) Made even more evident when he says to Wanda in AoU “Ok, look, the city is flying, we’re fighting an army of robots, and I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense. But I’m going back out there cause it’s my job”.

When The Soul Stone Was Returned So Was Natasha

I believe the Black Widow from the main MCU timeline is still alive. However, I feel this creates an interesting paradox for the MCU. As the Ancient One explained in Endgame, if you remove a stone from a point in time, you will create a new timeline. Hence the response from Bruce Banner saying something to the effect of, “we will return the stone after we use it.” Fast-forward to the end of the film where Steve Rogers was supposed to return the stones to the point in time where they were taken. You can clearly see the Soul Stone in the box with the other stones. As Steve is supposed to have returned the stones but not travel back to the present time of the film, we assume it was “returned” on Vormir.

This raises an interesting issue regarding the “return” of the stone, as you can’t just give it back from where it was found. In order to “return” that stone in the time it was granted to Ronin/Hawkeye, the sacrifice would have had to been circumvented so that the stone is never given to Ronin/Hawkeye, and thus, Black Widow, from the same timeline would still be alive. She would just need to use her quantum suit to go back to the main MCU timeline. The only other way that it could have been returned, was if Steve Rogers bargained with Death with the exchange of the soul that was offered (Black Widow). This also begs the question if Steve Rogers encounters Red Skull on Vormir, since he would have had to stop both of Ronin and Black Widow from jumping off the platform.

Natasha Is Actually Bucky’s Daughter

Natalia “Natasha” Alianovna Romanova. I was thinking about this the other day after watching Winter Soldier and I think that Natalia is the daughter of Bucky Barnes. Somewhere along the line Hydra realized that The Winter Soldier would eventually die or grow to old to be of practical use and so they attempted to extract whatever powers Arnim Zola gave him. They could never get it out and decided to see if the genetic traits would be passed down. The resulting baby was Black Widow. This is why when they met he didn’t kill her, instead just wounding her and letting her go. I think Hydra couldn’t get Bucky to just give his seed knowing the baby would have a life as twisted as his and so they defrosted him and planted a woman to fall in love with. He did they had a baby then they killed her and locked him away again. When he is defrosted again he sees Black Widow (who would look a lot like her mother) and fight the urge to kill her and just wound her then leave.

Black Widow’ Will Take Place In A Timeline Where Thanos Is Dead

The movie is centered around the Natasha from the other timeline, in which Thanos is dead. In Endgame, Thanos from the past travels to the present to face the Avengers who took the souls stone from his timeline. This version of Thanos meets his end via Tony’s snap, together with all his army and subordinates. This would mean there is a timeline in which Thanos does not exist by the time the events in infinity war occur, which means there is no reason for the Avengers to group back together. If they are separated still, it makes sense for Natasha to search for her own family. And most importantly, a cameo from RDJ would be perfectly explainable and bittersweet. Not to mention Black Widow’s existence, since she had died in endgame, just like Tony.

Clint Remembers Budapest Differently Because Natasha Went Back In Time

I rewatched the Avengers the other day when a line that I have heard many times sounded different. “You and I remember Budapest very differently.” Why did it sound different? Well because this is the first time I watched that movie now that time travel has been introduced. Go along with this. Soul Stone returned and Cap did get Natasha back. Yes, I know the Russos said she wasn’t but sometimes they lie when people are to close to figuring out major plot points. That’s why we get things like fake scenes in trailers. If Natasha is back alive, she now has a clean slate, a time traveler (Cap) to give her a lift, and something she never knew before: HER FATHER’S NAME. So maybe she travels back in time with Cap and starts searching for her dad. That would put 2 Natasha’s in that time. Maybe she went to Budapest during the incident and ran into Clint Barton. Barton didn’t realize it was two different Natashas. Suddenly his comment about remembering Budapest differently has a different tone. Plausible? Or am I just still in denial about losing Black Widow?

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