WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Black Widow, now playing in theaters and streaming on Disney+ Premier Access.
Leading up to Black Widow's release, Marvel Studios kept a tight lid on the identity of the mysterious Taskmaster, a character who can perfectly mimic their opponents' fighting style and use it against them. Ultimately, the movie reveals the masked figure is really Antonia Dreykov (Olga Kurylenko), the daughter of the Red Room's overseer, General Dreykov, whom Natasha Romanoff believed she killed years ago while attempting to take Dreykov out.
"I think it's important, and it's closer to reality and how things go in life," said Kurylenko, discussing Antonia's importance to Natasha's arc in the film with GamesRadar+. "And also more believable. I think it makes both of the characters more interesting. Because no one is a straightforward goodie or straightforward baddie, and therefore good people, even when they try to do something good, they just make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, even the superhero makes mistakes. And it makes [Natasha] more complex. It's not just all perfect. It'll be boring, right?"
"And [Natasha] has all those feelings and remorse obviously about -- she thinks she killed the girl," Kurylenko added. "She doesn't seem to feel good about it. But for her, it's done. And then obviously later when she realizes the damage and what actually was created following that mistake, in a way she is implicated in this creation of this villain. In a way. She of course didn't decide to make her the Taskmaster. She didn't decide to make Antonia a weapon of war. But that decision was made following the accident that Natasha provoked."
Black Widow ends with Natasha using the synthesized gas that neutralizes the Red Room's mind-control agent on Antonia/Taskmaster, restoring her agency. Antonia then leaves with Yelena Belova, Melina Vostokoff, Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian and the other Red Room assassins who've been exposed to the synthesized gas, possibly assisting them as they set out to find and free the other mind-controlled Black Widows around the world.
Kurylenko admitted she doesn't what, if anything, comes next for her character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Marvel's plans under lock and key for the time being. However, she said she would "of course" return as Taskmaster for a Disney+ spinoff centered on Antonia and her continuing journey.
Directed by Cate Shortland, Black Widow is playing in theaters and streaming on Disney+ Premier Access. Following her MCU debut in the movie, Florence Pugh is set to reprise her role as Yelena opposite Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton and Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop in the Hawkeye series.
Source: GamesRadar+
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