Details on Ray Winstone’s Black Widow Character Revealed

While fans are left to speculate over much of Marvel Studios’ now-delayed Black Widow, one detail that may have opened up is the nature of Ray Winstone’s previously unknown character. (Via Slash Film)

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In an interview for the upcoming Scarlett Johnasson-covered issue of Empire Magazine, it’s been reportedly revealed that Winstone is set to portray a character named Dreykov, the head of the Soviet brainwashing facility The Red Room where Natasha Romanoff received her training.

While this may seem like a generally interesting link to the titular hero’s past, it may actually have heavier ties to the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe than initially thought, as the character was briefly mentioned in Joss Whedon’s now iconic 2012 blockbuster The Avengers.

When interrogating Loki, Natasha mentions she would love to wipe the red from her past, feeding him false information in hopes of getting answers from the god of mischief, he responds with what he learned having been in control of Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye’s, mind.

“Can you wipe out that much red? Dreykov’s daughter…São Paolo…the hospital fire…Barton told me everything.”

Introducing Dreykov and his ties to Natasha would be an interesting connection to the past of the MCU itself and could help provide additional closure for the character and audiences.

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Scarlett Johansson returns as Natasha Romanoff, a spy and assassin who grew up being trained by the KGB before breaking from their grasp and becoming an agent of SHIELD and an Avenger. The film is expected to be set after the events of Captain America: Civil War, but before Avengers: Infinity War.

Black Widow will also feature a star-studded cast including Golden Globe nominee David Harbour (Stranger Things, Hellboy) as Alexei aka The Red Guardian, Florence Pugh (Fighting with My Family) as Yelena Belova, Academy Award-winning actress Rachel Weisz (The Favourite) as Melina and O-T Fagbenle (The Handmaid’s Tale) as Mason.

The movie is being directed by Cate Shortland (Lore) from a script written by Jac Schaeffer (The Hustle).