How the ‘Black Widow’ Post-Credits Sets-Up the Next Disney+ Show

Warning: Spoilers ahead for the post-credits scene of Black Widow. If you haven’t spent the $29 bucks yet on Disney+, go do that first. Then read this.

Are you ready for more Seinfeld vibes in your Marvel movies? Well, good news, the post-credits scene of Black Widow features the return of Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the scheming Contessa Val, who was last seen recruiting John Walker after his fall from grace in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. But what’s she doing there and what’s all this mean?

Well, it’s very possible that Loius-Dreyfus filmed this post-credits scene for Black Widow BEFORE The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and that MAYBE we were meant to see her in this post-credits scene before she appeared in FAWS. (Recall: Black Widow has been delayed for like a year because of COVID.) Anyway, Val is recruiting a bunch of agents and assassins and we don’t really know why. Because the post-credits scene of Black Widow happens AFTER the events of Avengers: Endgame, that puts it in the year 2023 in the Marvel timeline, the exact same time as everything is happening in FAWS. Natasha died in Endgame, and now, her sister Yelena (Florence Pugh) is getting some work from Val just after the events of that movie.

It’s a fun Easter egg and all, but what does it mean? Well, this is Marvel. They don’t just do anything for fun! The post-credits scene of Black Widow can only be telegraphing out one thing: Florence Pugh is going to crash the next Marvel Disney+ TV series! Why do you ask? Well, after Loki and What If? we’re still going to get a little Marvel TV show called…Hawkeye!

At the end of the Black Widow post-credits, Val shows Yelena a picture of Hawkeye and tells her that this is the guy who is responsible for her sister’s death. This is kind of true, insofar as Hawkeye was with Natasha on the planet Vormir when she threw herself off that cliff so they could get the Soul Stone to stop Thanos. If Yelena ever gets the details from Hawkeye, it seems like she’ll have almost zero reasons to kill him. And yet, with this one little scene, it looks like Marvel has set Yelena on her own path to meet her sister’s former partner. This means when — and if — she shows up in Hawkeye, Yelena’s backstory in Black Widow will be doubly important. Basically, without knowing it, watching Black Widow might have kind of been like watching a backdoor for pilot episdoe for Hawkeye.

Hawkeye is expected to hit Disney+ sometime in late 2021.

Black Widow is out in theaters and streaming on Disney+ with premier access. ($29)