Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Avengers: Endgame!
While Avengers: Endgame has been a big hit, fans have felt the loss of a few characters. That includes Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow. While on the Time Heist with Hawkeye, Black Widow came to Vormir in order to find the Soul Stone. Originally, it was set to go a different way. However, Natasha ultimately perishes so that Clint Barton can live. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, directors Joe and Anthony Russo explained why this needed to happen.
“We open the movie on [Hawkeye’s] family,” explained Anthony Russo. “She reminds him of it in the scene. They both may have the mission in that moment where, ‘I’m not going to let you kill yourself,’ but Hawkeye has mixed agendas there, which I feel takes the edge off his focus in a way that she doesn’t.”
“To me it’s one of the sadder scenes in the movie,” added co-director Joe Russo. “Because it’s really putting two people in a Sophie’s choice, putting two people in the position where, do you let your friend die or do you die?”
Related: Avengers: Endgame Post-Credits Scene ‘Was Never In the Cards’
“The theme of the movie is, can you change your destiny, and what does it cost to do it? And are you willing to pay that cost? It’s a resounding yes from the Avengers,” continued Joe Russo. “In [Infinity War] they said, ‘We don’t trade lives,’ and there was a desire to protect. And in this movie, there’s now a desire to sacrifice in order to accomplish the goal.”
“I think that that’s a natural progression, right? Well, the first thing we’re going to do is try to protect everybody,” continued Russo. “And then when you realize it can’t work that way, then true heroes step up and are willing to sacrifice for the greater good.”
That does leave some interesting questions about what will occur in the Black Widow film. The directors didn’t have too much to say on the matter.
“Natasha is a character whose identity was as a villain, prior to becoming a hero. In The Winter Soldier, that’s an issue for Cap, because she still dabbles in shades of gray, and he’s a black-and-white guy.”
What do you think about Black Widow’s ultimate decision? Let us know in the comments below!
