‘Moonraker’ Featured in Marvel’s ‘Black Widow’

Black Widow (2021) officially kicked off Marvel Phase 4 on 8 July, 2021, with Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), finally getting her long awaited solo film, two years after the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019).

Writer Eric Pearson tells Uproxx that instead of focusing on her characters fate in Avengers: Endgame, the focus in Black Widow instead became about “showing sides of Natasha we’ve never seen before. Namely, watching Natasha off the grid, drinking beer, watching the James Bond movie, ‘Moonraker’.”

As Pearson describes it, a lot more debate went into which James Bond movie Natasha should be watching than any of the creative team could possibly have imagined.

“I will say, I couldn’t believe – especially because we’re shooting in the UK – how much discussion there was about which Bond movie it should be. I just wanted her watching Bond, because I thought it was really fun and humanizing. Also, for her to just be there having a snack and mumbling the words out of her, it was very charming to me. But, man, I think we ultimately went with ‘Moonraker’ because there’s a jumping out of a plane with no parachutes.”

Peason also shared details of a cut scene with Uproxx, in which Natasha explains that, for her, watching James Bond is the same as how housewives watch The Real Housewives.

“This line was cut from the movie and I’m super butt-hurt about it. The idea was she’s going off the grid and she’s got this character, Mason (O-T Fagbenle), who sets everything up for her. She’s going to have to be there for a while. I even thought, a great humanizing moment is entertainment. I thought it would be so funny if she had the complete James Bond DVD series.

The line that was cut was huge. It was like, “Really? You wanted Bond?” The line that she had, that I love, because I thought it was clever was, “Do you know how real housewives watch ‘The Real Housewives’? Those movies are like that for me.” The idea that Bond, to her, was like reality TV, cheesy reality TV? I thought that was funny. They cut it.”

‘Black Widow’ also features several James Bond alumni, including Quantum of Solace’s (2008) David Harbour (Gregg Beam) as Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian, and Olga Kurylenko (Camille) as Antonia Dreykov / Taskmaster, and costume designer Jany Temime Skyfall (2012) and SPECTRE (2015). Plus, Daniel Craig’s wife, Rachel Weisz also appears in the film as Melina Vostokoff.
 

‘Black Widow’ is cinemas globally and streaming on Disney + from 8 July, 2021.