Black Widow Director Reveals Why Natasha Doesn’t Receive Funeral in Avengers: Endgame

SPOILER ALERT: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOUND IN THE BLACK WIDOW FILM

Black Widow is breaking box-office records around the world following its recent premiere! As the film continues to have success on both Disney+ and at movie houses, Avengers: Endgame director Cate Shortland revealed the decision why only Iron Man received a funeral in the film and not Natasha (Black Widow).

If you don’t remember the cataclysmic events of Avengers: Endgame, in the film, following the deaths of both Black Widow and Iron Man, Iron Man is given a public funeral–which is attended by all of the Avengers. However, Black Widow, who also dies tragically in the film, did not receive any funeral processions. Although, according to a new interview, it seems this was in part a request by Scarlett Johansson.

“Scarlett talked to me about it: Her character would have hated a public funeral,” Shortland told Variety about Natasha’s modest gravesite in Ohio. “So I felt like the fact that she’s buried in a really private place, in the boondocks somewhere, is perfect.”

In the past, Stephen McFeely, Avengers: Endgame co-writer defended the decision not to show a funeral for Natasha, telling The New York Times in 2019: “Tony gets a funeral. Natasha doesn’t. That’s partly because Tony’s this massive public figure and she’s been a cipher the whole time. It wasn’t necessarily honest to the character to give her a funeral.”

Movie director Joe Russo later said Black Widow — originally scheduled for release in 2020 — was an opportunity for Marvel Studios to send off Johansson’s character after Endgame brought “closure” to Iron Man.

“Natasha has another movie coming out. Tony does not have another movie coming out,” Russo told Entertainment Tonight in July 2019. “When you’re dealing with storytelling real estate in a three-hour movie, there’s only so much of it, and someone else has another film coming, there’s always the opportunity to bring closure in that other movie. In this movie, we had to bring closure to Tony Stark.”

What are you thoughts on Black Widow not receiving a funeral in Avengers: Endgame? Let us know in the comments!

Sean Sposato

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