Following the overwhelming success of Avengers: Endgame that officially concludes Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe odyssey, Phase 4 kicks off with the movie Black Widow.
Set to drop in theaters all over the world in May 2020, anticipation for the movie has never been higher than it is right now following the release of the first official teaser trailer.
With Henry Jackman's frenetic score playing in the background, the trailer is set at a break-neck pace, and it is easy to miss important details.
We have attempted to analyze frame-by-frame the 2-minute teaser and provide a breakdown of the details that may give some clue as to the timeline, themes, and the characters in the movie.
Avid fans of the Avengers franchise are familiar with Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton's passing reference to Budapest since the first Avengers movie.
The two on-screen friends bring up Budapest during a conversation aboard a spaceship headed to Vormir in Avengers: Endgame.
After fans were left perplexed as to what took place in Budapest, it seems likely that we are finally getting an exploration of the events that took place in Budapest.
The trailer opens with a panning shot of the Liberty Statue in Gellért Hill, Hungary, the capital of Budapest prompting eagle-eyed fans to connect the dots.
The trailer has also led audiences to speculate that the movie will be set in two different time-periods.
While a majority of the movie will likely focus on Romanoff's attempts at evading the law after being branded a fugitive following the events of Avengers: Civil War, a shot of a younger General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross has prompted speculations that some aspects of the movie will focus on events that took place even before the first Iron Man movie.
Readers of the Black Widow comic books already know about the background of the main protagonist and themes that are explored, but the uninitiated who are expecting an "Avengers-esque" superhero movie can guess pretty accurately by looking at the trailer that this is unlike those series of movies.
The movie seems to be more in line with the spy-espionage trope than the out-and-out superhero movie casual fans might be expecting. In this regard, the Black Widow movie is reminiscent of Captain America: The Winter Soldier in that it explores a more grounded superhero crime-espionage thriller.
The trailer also features what is likely to be the main antagonist of the movie: Taskmaster. The infamous villain is the nemesis of Natasha Romanoff in the comic books.
His civilian alter-ego, Tony Masters, courtesy of heightened intelligence and photographic memory, can mimic his adversary's fighting moves. He also carries around a massive arsenal of weaponry including a sword and shield.
The trailer also sees Natasha's confrontation with Yelena Belova played by Florence Pugh, at the end of which Natasha calls her "sister".
Yelena is, however, not her actual sister. She is one of the many Black Widows trained by the KGB in the art of espionage and contract-killing. We are also introduced to Rachel Weisz's character Melina and David Harbour's character Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian.
The trailer hints at a dysfunctional albeit familial bond created between them that provides the core drama of the story.
If the teaser trailer is any indication, Black Widow, while still a continuation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is a stand-alone movie that does not rely on the overplayed superhero trope.
At its heart, the movie looks to be an espionage thriller and the fact that there are superheroes involved seems to be secondary to the movie.