Avengers: Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have completely ruled out the theory that suggests that Black Widow might have survived the events of the Endgame.
Natasha Romanoff met her end when the remaining Avengers set out to do a ‘Time Heist’. Their mission was to pick up the Infinity Stones from moments in the past to undo Thanos’ Infinity Snap.
Black Widow and Hawkeye were sent to Vormir in 2014. Their target was the Soul Stone. They were asked ‘a soul for a soul’ by the Red Skull. Black Widow ended up falling to her death after winning a small duo against Hawkeye.
During the end credits, it was shown that Captain America went on to return all the Infinity Stones to their rightful place. This gave fans a hope that Black Widow could be restored to life again on returning the soul stone to Vormir.
Unfortunately, the film’s writers recently put a shut on that theory.
In a recent podcast, Markus said that ‘You put it back, but you don’t get anything in return.’ He further explained that it is not a pawn shop, instead, it is a slot machine.
This can be justified by the film’s take on time travel. Endgame focuses on the theory that any changes in the past do not change the present. Writers tried to justify themselves by stating, ‘If you put yourself in our position, you might come to the same conclusions.’
They said that the final part of the Infinity saga dealt with time travel. They had to do at least three travels in order to collect six stones. If they adopted the traditional time travel rules like in Back to The Future, where a change in past gives rise to a ripple effect finally altering the present. Then, do that three or more times would be perplexing and extremely difficult to keep track on.
This basically confirms that the Black Widow solo movie will probably focus on Natasha’s past. Endgame director Joe Russo also confirmed this during a recent interview when he revealed that Marvel is ‘not telling linear stories any more.’