Marvel Studios’ Black Widow premiered in July and introduced several new characters to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One of the characters who is receiving a lot of positive feedback is David Harbour’s Alexei, a.k.a. the Red Guardian. In a conversation with fans on social media, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige revealed some very interesting facts about the character and how he was brought to life by Harbour.
In the comics, the Red Guardian is the Soviet Union’s super-soldier, their equivalent of Captain America. Black Widow doesn’t dive into his backstory but does offer glimpses of his super strength and his comics-accurate costume is also revealed. However, getting into this costume was as hard as Harbour portrayed it in the film to be.
In the Q&A session on Twitter, Feige revealed that during the filming of the scene where Harbour first puts on the Red Guardian costume, the actor had a minor, silly accident. In the film, when the family reunites after two decades, Alexei decides to walk into the washroom and puts on his Red Guardian suit. However, the scene shows his struggle to fit into the costume after evidently gaining weight during his prison stint. “There was one take where he actually got stuck inside the suit and had to call for help to get out,” Feige revealed in one of his tweets, and it turns out that one of these shots even made it into the film. The struggle was real for Harbour, similar to Ross from Friends when he struggled to get into his leather pants.
One of the most emotional moments in Black Widow is when Yelena and Alexei are sitting in a bedroom after a family argument and he starts to sing "American Pie" by Don McLean to calm her down. The song was her favorite as a child, and he knows that it can tug on her heartstrings. However, the idea was not a part of the script from the beginning but was rather an impromptu decision by Harbour during rehearsals. It went on to become one of Feige's “favorite moments from the movie.”
While it has already been confirmed in the Black Widow post-credits scene that Yelena will be returning for future MCU projects, there is no confirmation yet as to whether fans will get to see more of Red Guardian moving forward. When asked about his future appearances, Feige simply confirmed that he wants to see the character return, but did not offer any reassurances. He would, however, like to see a “showdown” between the new Captain America and Alexei. With Sam Wilson taking on the mantle in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, there is a possibility of bringing their rivalry from the comics to the big screen.
Harbour seems to have put in a lot of effort to bring the Red Guardian to life in Black Widow. Feige revealed that he “put in a lot of work” with the fight coordinator and trained for all the fight scenes that he was involved in. One of the most important ones is when he goes up against the Taskmaster, who is able to mimic his every move. In Feige’s opinion, Harbour was ready to take on the role from day one.
Black Widow is now running in theaters and streaming exclusively on Disney Plus.
Source: Marvel Entertainment/Twitter