Avengers: Endgame, the Marvel Cinematic Universe had already retconned her perfect ending. Although the Infinity Saga has now come to an end and with it the arcs of most of the original Avengers, the MCU is taking a few steps back to revisit Natasha Romanoff’s (Scarlett Johansson) story and answer some questions about her past in Black Widow.
Set between the events of Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour) – and will come across a one-of-a-kind villain called Taskmaster, who has the ability to mimic the movements and fighting style of everyone they observe. As mentioned above, Natasha’s fate has already been sealed, but before that, the MCU had already given her a perfect ending, but it quickly retconned it.
Natasha was one of the few heroes who survived Thanos’ snap in Avengers: Infinity War, and she was part of the time heist in Avengers: Endgame, teaming up with Hawkeye to retrieve the Soul Stone from Vormir. Natasha ended up sacrificing herself so Hawkeye could take the stone and return to their present, and as she didn’t die as a result of the snap, she couldn’t be brought back through the Hulk’s snap. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and it didn’t take long for it to be retconned.
After the reveal of HYDRA still being active and operating within S.H.I.E.L.D., leading to the fall of the agency, many secrets kept by S.H.I.E.L.D. were made public, putting many people at risk, including Natasha. In the final minutes of Avengers: Age of Ultron, followed by Captain America: Civil War, and Natasha was brought back without a problem and no mention of her new identity and her life post-Winter Soldier.
Having Natasha retire and live a new, peaceful life under a new identity would have been the perfect closure to a character who went through a lot of pain and tragedy since she was young. Of course, Black Widow can’t give her a different and better ending, but it can at least give her one final adventure through which many questions about her past will be answered, but the damage is already done when it comes to how her arc ended.
