The parts that are hard to follow from the film alone, explained with a story summary, a character map and key terms.
Released
2021
Runtime
134 min
Set in
2016
Good to know before watchingNo spoilers
Set right after Civil War
Released in 2021, but set in 2016, between Civil War and Infinity War.
Natasha's past
We finally see her childhood and how she was trained as a spy.
Yelena's debut
Yelena, later central to Hawkeye and Thunderbolts*, first appears here.
Stay through the credits
A scene leads into Hawkeye.
Character mapSpoilers
Who's who in Black Widow (set in 2016), with Natasha at the center. Her 'family' is at the top, the Red Room below.
Because of copyright, we can't use stills, posters or any other images of the characters as they appear in the film. All face photos are freely licensed photos of the actors themselves (non-human characters are original illustrations made for this site; people without a photo are shown with initials).
Drag to move, pinch (or scroll on a computer) to zoom. Tap a person to read about them.
Face photos are freely licensed photos of the actors from Wikimedia Commons, cropped to a square and resized. Non-human characters are original illustrations made for this site, and people without a photo are shown with a placeholder (initials).
Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) — Scarlett Johansson: photo by GabboT / CC BY-SA 2.0