Black Widow’s Red Guardian Will Return For A New Marvel Project?
Here's where Marvel is at on a project for Red Guardian.
This article is more than 2 years old
Marvel continues to grab characters from the comics to bring them to life on the big screen. It also snags some of the biggest stars in Hollywood into the fold of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With Black Widow, comic book fans got to see Red Guardian for his live-action debut with a huge Netflix star as the character, David Harbour. The actor spoke to Collider and revealed that there are discussions about his character’s future in the franchise.
With all of the plans Marvel has, plans for Red Guardian would be far out. The schedule for the rest of the year is filled with three movies and three TV shows, and that is what is coming in 2021, not including 2022 or 2023. While plans can be moved, most of the definitive release dates for these projects go out until May 2023 with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, so anytime after that is where the door opens for this character to get any chance to shine.
The Stranger Things actor said these conversations were more focused on the possibility of going back. Getting a feel for potential ideas. The takeaway is that they were focused on Black Widow, then can go back to Red Guardian down the road.
“The discussions were, they didn’t really give a sense of what was up next,” he said. “It was more just really focused on this movie and some speculation of possibilities.”
Kevin Feige, the head of Marvel Studios, told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month that the studio is shifting away from signing deals with actors that include multiple movie or TV show appearances. It is more of a case-by-case basis. He wants talent who are “excited at the opportunity to do more things, as opposed to being locked into contractual obligations.” Depending on how conversations go with Harbour, that could determine how much more or little we see of Red Guardian.
If Feige wants excitement over the universe, then the star might match the executive’s expectations. In an interview with Insider, Harbour revealed he had pitched two ideas about what the studio could do with his character. One is a prequel that would see Red Guardian “back in his prime.” The other is that he would hunt down Hawkeye as he gets misinformed about Black Widow’s demise. Maybe none of those come to fruition, but trying to collaborate on ideas could get him his chance to return to another movie, whether his own or someone else’s.
Appearances outside of the source material are limited for the character, making his appearance in Scarlett Johansson’s farewell even bigger for his history within Marvel. The origins of Red Guardian’s comic book debut dates back to The Avengers #43 by Roy Thomas and John Buscema. He was seen in the animated series Avengers Assemble and portrayed by Troy Baker (The Last of Us), who played other characters like Hawkeye and Loki. Fred Tatasciore (Kung Fu Panda 2) voiced the Russian equivalent of Captain America in Marvel Future Avengers.
Black Widow is currently in theaters and on Disney Plus. The film stars Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, Florence Pugh as her sister Yelena, and David Harbour as Alexi, better known as Red Guardian.
