A new Black Widow featurette has painted the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster as the bridge between the past and future of the superhero franchise. The comic book blockbuster marks the return of Scarlett Johansson‘s Natasha Romanoff, but it’s also a prequel set directly after the events of Captain America: Civil War, so there’s plenty of narrative gaps set to be filled in.

Fans have been clamoring to see Johansson get her own solo movie for a decade, and there’s an air of bittersweetness to the fact that it’s finally happening after she’s been killed off in the main timeline, having sacrificed herself to help save the universe in Avengers: Endgame. However, Florence Pugh looks more than capable of picking up the mantle as the MCU‘s newest favorite covert operative, with the Academy Award-nominated actress already set to reprise her role as Yelena Belova in Disney Plus series Hawkeye.

In the featurette, star Johansson and Rachel Weisz sing the praises of both the Marvel Studios machine and Black Widow at large, while Kevin Feige outlines just how important the film is in the grander scheme of Phase Four, even though it’s only the franchise’s second prequel following the 1990s-set Captain Marvel. Feige also teases that he’s looking to deliberately subvert audience expectations.

Agent Romanoff’s backstory has always been intentionally shrouded in mystery, but she’s got an impressive surrogate family to rely on upon with Pugh‘s Yelena, Weisz‘s Melina Vostokoff, and David Harbour‘s Red Guardian, forced to put their differences and history aside to team up and unravel a conspiracy tied to the infamous Red Room, spearheaded by Ray Winstone‘s Dreykov.

Black Widow is coming to theaters and Disney Plus Premier Access on July 9. Check out the brand new behind-the-scenes featurette below.

via Collider