If David Harbour’s Red Guardian costume in Black Widow reminded you of Captain America, that’s on purpose. Red Guardian is Russia’s own Captain America and in the upcoming Black Widow, it’s obvious that the Red Guardian did not go the way of Steve Rogers. Looking like he’s past his time, Alexei is happy, though; to get back into his red suit and be reunited with his Black Widows.
Harbour has a lot of thoughts about his character, which he divulged into with TheWrap. One comment is about playing a character who is past his prime:
“All the talk with superhero’s can be focused on their invincibility, so where do you find the cracks in that?”
He continued:
“He’s this guy who is closely linked to Natasha back in the day. I don’t think it’s been quite revealed exactly how, but I think you can see in the family dynamic that he was a bit of a fatherly figure to her. And a number of years go by and he’s past his prime. So he gets back into his superhero outfit, and it still fits, but it’s a little tighter than before. I think the great thing about the Red Guardian is he really is– he was the Captain America of his day for Russia. And he was the great hope of Russia, in a certain sense.”
In the comics, Alexei is Natasha Romanoff’s husband at some point. Considering Harbour akin the dynamic between Alexei and Natasha as a “fatherly figure”, it seems maybe they aren’t going to go in the route of being married. It would make sense – it would be a lot to explain in the movie, ten years after the introduction of Natasha in the MCU.
Harbour talked about his character being flawed:
“And he kind of, as you’ll see in the movie, he blew it in certain ways and he’s trying to start up again. I really like that angle on a superhero. All the talk with superhero’s can be focused on their invincibility, so where do you find the cracks in that? And Red Guardian has tons of cracks all over him. And he’s not the heroic, noble man that you want him to be. He both comically and tragically has a lot of flaws. And I love that about it. And also, he has a lot of strengths.”
Black Widow will hit theaters on May 1, 2020.
Source: The Wrap
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