To celebrate the long-awaited release of Marvel Studios’ Black Widow, which his UK cinemas this week, we sat down with O-T Fagbenle, one of the new additions to the MCU, to find out about the prequel.
Taking place in the years after Captain America: Civil War but preceding the cataclysmic events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, fans have had to wait a little longer for the first stand-alone film with Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) due to the pandemic but finally – and on the big screen – the wait is over. On the run in 2016, she is forced to confront her past and return to where she was trained as a Black Widow, meaning both a reunion with her estranged family (Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Rachel Weisz) and a showdown with an assassin known as Taskmaster.
Making his debut in the cinematic universe, Fagbenle joins the fun as Mason, an ally of Natasha over the years who has helped her navigate being hunted, most notably by Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt) who sees her – and others – in violation of the Sokovia Accords.
Fagbenle told us about how the part was almost “written for him” after testing for some other roles, being the fix-it man helping Natasha and working with Johansson. We also quizzed him about the numerous fan theories about his character – amongst all the others – and whether he had read any that suggest he could be any number of good or bad guys in the film. No spoilers here.
You can view the full interview below:
Black Widow is in cinemas from July 7, order it on Disney+ with Premier Access from July 9.
