‘Black Widow’ Writer Felt ‘Super Guilty’ About Movie’s Post-Credits Scene
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Black Widow.
The mid or post-credits scene is a Marvel trademark at this point. In these short vignettes, we often get a glimpse at what's to come in the future of the MCU. Black Widow, which was released in theaters earlier this July, is no exception. But when writer Eric Pearson was tackling the film's stinger ending, he couldn't help but feel guilty.
Black Widow's post-credits scene sees Valentina (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) personally informing Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) who her next target will be — Clint Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye. Furthermore, she describes Clint as the man responsible for Natasha's death. When Pearson was requested to write this scene, he wasn't informed where Yelena would appear next.
"I was like, ‘Who am I screwing over? Something is going on! I don’t have an answer for this,'" Pearson told The Hollywood Reporter. "They were like, ‘You don’t need to. We are going to figure that out.’ I remember writing it and feeling super guilty. ‘I hope whatever writer is working on this next chapter is going to be OK with what I’ve done to them.'"
Since December of 2020, we've known that Pugh will reprise her role of Yelena in the upcoming Disney+ series Hawkeye. The post-credits scene reveals how her involvement in the new Jeremy Renner-fronted show ties into the rest of the MCU. But Black Widow was in the developmental stages long before that, so it makes sense that Pearson wouldn't have access to that information when writing the script.
Black Widow is in theaters now, or you can watch it on Disney+ through their Premier Access feature. You can sign up for a free trial of Disney+ here.