Black Widow Lives

Black Widow Lives is a 2023 American superhero film co-produced by Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It is the sequel to Black Widow (2021). In the film, after Natasha (Johansson) is delivered to the Avengers Compound from Vomir for burial, she begins to show signs of life, but fades away to the SSU (Sony's Spider-Man universe), where she lives a peaceful life working for the Life Foundation, which has since turned it's image around, but must team up with Eddie Brock/Venom (Hardy), in an effort to take down her former trainer, Madame B (Delpy), and corrupt detective, Patrick Mulligan/Toxin (Graham). Filming took place from January to May 2022. It was released on February 1, 2023. The film recieved mixed reviews, praising Johansson's and Hardy's performances, action sequences, emotional tone, screenplay, and plot, but it's short runtime was criticized. Two sequels, titled Black Widow Reborn and Black Widow's Child are scheduled to be released in April 2025 and August 2026, respectively.

Plot
Shortly after the events of Avengers: Endgame, Natasha Romanoff was brought to the Avengers Compound to be buried. As burial preperations begun, Natasha started to show signs of life, and was transported to the universe where Eddie Brock/Venom is.

Two years later, Natasha is now working for the Life Foundation, whose image had been changed completely since the deaths of Carlton Drake/Riot. Her ovaries and uterus had since miraculously regenerated fully. She then goes to Applebee's, and as she is about to come in, she is greeted by Dr. Dan Lewis. He then tells her that Anne Weying died defending Dr. Dan Lewis, and that it was Patrick Mulligan who did it as revenge for enacting a hit piece on him. She then goes into the restaurant, and while watching the TV, a news report covers Madame B entering Eddie's universe, and that Mulligan was arrested for the murder.

Meanwhile, at San Quentin State Prison, Madame B poses as a prison guard, and Mulligan reveals that he wants revenge on Eddie. Madame B reveals that she wants to re-sterilize Natasha, and Mulligan agrees to the deal, and explains his plan in detail. Madame B opens the cell door, and the ruse is discovered. Mulligan hands Madame B a gun from one of the prison guards that she had killed, and after Toxin breaks a wall in the prison, they find a Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, and use it as their getaway vehicle, with Madame B as the driver as they escape.

Later, Natasha meets Eddie, and they talk to each other on what they had been through. The next day, Natasha gets a newspaper at her home, which previously belonged to Anne, from the Daily Bugle. The headline said "Madame B and Patrick Mulligan escape!". Natasha calls Eddie over, and he arrives. Shortly after his arrival, Natasha and Eddie start to contemplate a plan, but in the middle of their conversation, the two start to develop feelings for each other. Venom senses the feelings, and Natasha approves the idea of Venom explaining her past to Eddie. They resume their conversation about stopping Madame B and Patrick Mulligan, and they reveal that they're headed to Mulligan's lair, the abandoned Public Health Service Hospital. After they arrive and enter, Madame B decides to re-sterilize Natasha, not long before she and Eddie arrive on a red 2021 Ducati Panigale.

Madame B explains to them that Natasha will be in all but good hands, but she isn't fooled by that remark. Venom emerges at the same time as Toxin, whereas Madame B draws out the prison guard's gun. The four of them begin fighting, and after several blows, Madame B hurls Romanoff through a window and grabs a tank filled with nitrous oxide in an attempt to sedate Romanoff and re-sterilize her, but she grabs the tank and leaves it in the room where it was found. Venom and Toxin appear evenly matched, and both sent themselves flying into a wall, and they charge at each other. Venom defeats Toxin by shoving him into a corner, causing the symbiote to detatch from Mulligan as Venom places Toxin into a jar in the hopes of training the symbiote to be a hero, and Romanoff knocks Madame B out cold with her two batons. Eddie and Natasha are about to leave, but Madame B, who had regained consciousness, shoots Eddie in his left arm with the gun in a bid to emotionally scar Romanoff, but Venom rebonds with Eddie, saving his life, and the fight between Romanoff and Madame B continues briefly until Romanoff uses her Widow's Bite to subdue Madame B, then pushes her into an old elevator. Romanoff severed the elevator ropes, causing the elevator to fall and land on the bottom, trapping Madame B inside.

With her former trainer defeated, Natasha and Eddie leave the abandoned hospital as Mulligan is arrested and taken back to jail for his crimes as Yelena Belova is given the jar with the Toxin symbiote inside, and she vows to prevent it from getting out until Venom gets around to training it to be a hero. Five months later, Natasha and Eddie go on a date at STK Steakhouse, where they order steak, whereas Eddie orders some green tea for Natasha, resulting in Martin Li, who was working there, heading to the kitchen. She thanks Eddie for thinking about her, and gives him a small kiss on his left cheek.

Mid-credits scene: Yelena places the jar in a safe to ensure that Toxin won't escape until Venom gets around to training him to be a hero.

Cast
Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow

Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom

Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova

Bruce Campbell as Martin Li/Mr. Negative

Julie Delpy as Madame B

Reid Scott as Dr. Dan Lewis

Stephen Graham as Patrick Mulligan/Toxin

Development
Shortly after the success of Black Widow, Marvel Entertainment greenlit a sequel. Scarlett Johansson expressed interest in participating shortly after the film was confirmed. Here's what she said:

"I wouldn't mind going to do another one because it was so much fun, first of all, and a real challenge to try to expand on Natasha as much as I can. There is so much room, you know. Natasha's story hasn't ended yet."

Tom Hardy signed on 5 days later to star as Eddie Brock/Venom. He expressed intrest in reprising the role shortly after the film's announcement. Avi Arad and Kevin Feige wrote the script, and Marvel Entertainment approved the idea of Natasha moving from the MCU to the SSU. Reid Scott, Julie Delpy, Stephen Graham signed on after the script was complete. Filming took place from January to May 2022. The song that was used during the end credits was Stars In The Sky by Kid Cudi (from the zero fifty-two minute mark until the one twenty-one minute mark). After returning to the end credits, the song used was Venom by Eminem (from the one twenty minute mark until the two zero one minute mark). The intro used for the film was the same as the Spider-Man 3 intro, but with a gold background, and the pictures and footage in the intro were replaced by footage and pictures of the previous film, including flashbacks of Natasha's training, while still using the Spider-Man 3 intro theme, and the person who designed the intro was Alex Ross. The intro also replaced the Spider-Man 3 title with the Black Widow Lives title. The film was given a PG-13 rating for intense sequences of violence/action, some language, and thematic material.

Theatrical
Black Widow Lives was theatrically released on February 1, 2023. Marvel Studios also wanted to release the film to get Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania out of the way. It became one of the highest-grossing films, but came second behind Mysterio Forever.

Home video
The film will be released on DVD. Blu-Ray, and 4K Ultra HD on July 4. 2023. It will be available to stream on Disney+ on August 15, 2023.

Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 89%, with an average rating of 8.9/10. Critics stated that this "was a great idea to bring back Black Widow" Kambole Campbell at Empire Online gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, stating that the film "may be a great one, but it does have more to work on because of it's short runtime."

Soundtrack
Christopher Young wanted to use some elements from his compositions for Spider-Man 3 for nostalgic reasons.

Sequels
Two weeks after the film was released, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hardy, Florence Pugh, and Bruce Campbell all signed onto the film. On February 11, it was confirmed by Sam Raimi that the third and fourth Black Widow films would be shot back-to-back in an effort to reduce making "another 3 hour Marvel movie".