David Harbour confirms suspicions over the Black Widow ending

Scarlet Johansson, David Harbour, and Florence Pugh in Black Widow

(Image credit: Disney)

David Harbour has opened up about the Black Widow ending – and he's confirmed a common suspicion about the final act.

Harbour played Red Guardian in the Marvel Phase 4 movie, and he will be reprising his role for the upcoming Thunderbolts movie, arriving later in Marvel Phase 5.

"We were, I think, going to go, and then I think they did want the opportunity to change some stuff," the actor told the Happy Sad Confused podcast (before the SAG-AFTRA actors' strike) of Thunderbolts. "The interesting thing about Marvel, that's so great about them, is they do rework stuff. Even big productions. Like Black Widow, the entire third act was reworked as we were shooting, which is incredible. And so, they just want that freedom."

The third act of Black Widow sees a massive, CGI-heavy sequence where Natasha Romanoff must escape a base that's falling through the sky. The rest of the film was a fairly grounded thriller, so the sudden fantastical action came as a bit of a surprise. There was also the odd choice to cut to black when Natasha was about to face down General Ross, too.

Harbour talked to our sister publication Total Film about Thunderbolts last year. "I really like him," he said of Red Guardian, "and I love Florence [Pugh] as Yelena [also in Thunderbolts]. And then you throw in Wyatt [Russell, as U.S. Agent] from Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Sebastian [Stan, reprising Bucky Barnes]. You have all these great, colorful characters. I'm really excited for that movie."

Amid the WGA writers' strike, though, production on the movie has been put on hold indefinitely.

While you wait for Thunderbolts, check out our guide on all the upcoming Marvel movies and TV shows for everything else the MCU has in store.

I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.