Marvel might’ve just accidentally revealed some surprisingly big MCU spoilers

Marvel is rebuilding its cinematic universe after the hugely successful Avengers: Endgame movie that brought fans an amazing conclusion to the Infinity Saga. Some of our beloved heroes died or retired, the main villain of the saga is dead, and the world is left in a completely different state. Those are some of the building blocks for Marvel’s next Endgame-like adventure, which is currently being developed. We need some new heroes to join the new Avengers and form new teams, and we need new villains that will replace Thanos.

On paper, it’s all very exciting given that Marvel can make full use of its characters that were previously licensed to Fox. Now that Disney owns everything, the Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Deadpool, will all show up in the MCU, maybe as soon as Phase 4. Given that many Phase 4 projects are already in production, we’ve come to learn plenty of details about the upcoming films. And while we’re still in the dark when it comes to the major storyline that will connect all the movies and TV series, we do have several clues about what’s going to happen next — and some of the latest potential spoilers came directly from Marvel, as the studio might have just accidentally revealed a few important MCU spoilers.

Marvel has confirmed that the Loki left alive after Endgame will appear not only in the Loki TV series, but also in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. As a result, Marvel practically told us that we’ll witness more inter-dimensional travel, including time travel, to make it possible. The Loki who left with the Space Stone in Endgame is still confined to his timeline, so it’ll be interesting to see how he gets in touch with Doctor Strange in the MCU’s main timeline. Then, Marvel confirmed in a brief teaser that Loki will indeed deal with time travel, and he might be captured at some point by an overseeing authority called the Time Variance Authority (TVA).

Marvel also revealed that Strange 2 will mark the debut of a hero we don’t expect to see in that particular movie, further emphasizing the importance of this film in the grand scheme of things.

The recent trailer for the upcoming Disney+ TV shows, including The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision, and Loki, also revealed the return of Baron Zemo to the MCU and the fact that the Captain America mantle won’t come to Sam just yet. Furthermore, the clip showed that the WandaVision leaks were right, and a part of the TV series will play out just like a sitcom spread across a few decades.

But Marvel’s most hyped project right now is Black Widow, a film confirmed to take place between Civil War and Infinity War in the main Marvel timeline. But Black Widow isn’t just a prequel intended to deliver the origin story Nat never got. It’ll also set up events that will impact the evolution of the main MCU storyline, and thanks to Marvel, we have an idea of what that might mean.

New character posters and emojis for #BlackWidow #NatashaRomanoff #YelenaBelova #MelinaVostokoff#AlexeiShostakov pic.twitter.com/UThkE7EhlU

— Marvel Facts & News (@MUCulture) February 3, 2020

The studio released the official posters of Black Widow, which include all the main heroes of the film — Natasha Romanoff (Scarlet Johannson), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz), and Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour).

All the posters look more or less the same. We have an image of each character against a red and white background showing highly redacted Russian documents, the kind you’d associate with a spy operation. After all, that’s what the black widows are, highly trained operatives. But an eagle-eyed Redditor noted something unusual in those redactions:

On the posters of Milena and Elena there are words: “From the darkness” – at one and “Towards the light” – at the other. (On Russian of course)

With these words, the Hydra agents were mobilized in the series “Agents of the SHIELD” when Hydra captured the SHIELD.

Well, it turns out they are hydra agents?

So, does Hydra have a future in the MCU? Well, it stands to reason that Hydra elements would have survived the fight with SHIELD, and some of them would have embarked on villainous adventures. Let’s not forget that the move is set soon after the events of The Winter Soldier, which is when we all learned that SHIELD was infested with Hydra.

The posters also confirm the name of Weisz’s character, a name we’ve known for a while. That’s Melina Vostokoff, and it’s an important detail to remember because she may turn out to be one of the antagonists of the film. In the comics, she is also known as Iron Maiden and she’s a villain. If recent leaks about the movie are to be believed, Melina will indeed work against Nat in Black Widow. But having Marvel advertise Melina’s name like that on posters is a clear confirmation she shouldn’t be trusted.

Black Widow opens worldwide on May 1st.