Up until the Coronavirus pandemic ground the entire Hollywood machine to a standstill, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was unstoppable. Putting out film after film, and breaking record after record, it all culminated in Avengers: Endgame which had the biggest box office draw in history. But of course, audiences need a little time to cool down between huge cultural events, and so next on the slate was Black Widow, a slightly lower-key film meant to focus on Scarlett Johansson’s character and bridge the gap between Endgame and the next phase of the MCU.
When the film released its first trailer however the instant crowd favorite was David Harbour as the Red Guardian: basically Russian Captain America with everything that implies. The character appears to be a semi-retired superhero with some connection to Black Widow, and is clearly quite the personality. Harbour, whose star power blew up after his role in Netflix’s Stranger Things, has brought quite a bit of charisma to Red Guardian even in the short time audiences have seen him. It was in the pages of Black Widow: The Official Movie Special Book that the actor explained why the comparisons to Captain America were more accurate than one might expect.
While discussing the character’s backstory, Harbour states: “He grew up in the Soviet Union during the arms race. He was a soldier. He was chosen for this program as the Americans were developing weapons and, of course, Captain America. The Russians were slow to catch up, but they wanted to fight back with their own version of Captain America. He was shot up with a super-strength serum and trained in a certain way. But he didn’t become as famous as Captain America – nobody really knows who he is.”
So it would seem that Red Guardian is indeed a Captain America knock off who didn’t quite have the same level of success. It’s an interesting concept which should make for some fun scenes when Black Widow finally hits theaters, or possibly Disney+. Whether or not Red Guardian is as strong, capable, or determined as Chris Evans’ Captain America remains to be seen, but hopefully the character is as fun as he looks, and his fair share of the limelight.
Black Widow is currently slated for release on May 7th, 2021.
