Black Widow’s Endgame Costume Was Originally More Like Ronin’s

Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) almost had a costume similar to Ronin’s in Avengers: Endgame. When the 22nd Marvel Cinematic Universe movie picked back up with the Avengers, it didn’t take long for what little hope they had left to be lost. Thanos destroyed the Infinity Stones after wiping out half of all life in the universe, and Thor killed him as a result. The Avengers grew apart after this as each attempted to move on, except for Black Widow.

The former spy refused to give up during the next five years and was left to oversee the Avengers. While she had people like Captain Marvel, Okoye, and War Machine reporting in the latest developments around the universe, she was mainly focused on finding her old friend Clint Barton aka Hawkeye. Rumors had spread that Barton had become a more deadly and vengeful vigilante after The Snap, and Widow saw this firsthand in Tokyo when she went to bring him back.

This sequence is where Avengers: Endgame introduced Barton’s Ronin look, and it turns out Black Widow almost had matching attire. As revealed in The Art of Avengers: Endgame, several designs for Black Widow’s new costume were discussed, including one that gave her a Ronin look. Concept artist Wesley Burt’s designs can be seen below his quote about the decision to try this look for Natasha:

“We thought the idea could be cool to have matching palettes because they were going to be paired off on their journey together. I think originally there was going to be a scene where we see these two masked people fighting and the audience doesn’t know who they are, and then there would be a reveal that it’s Clint and Natasha. So that was some of the mask and hood stuff – strictly for a reveal. I was also pushing for different hairstyles and other stuff too.”

Art of Avengers Endgame Black Widow Ronin Costumes Concept Art

Even though this design wasn’t used, it is an intriguing idea to have Black Widow and Hawkeye look this similar. The MCU has shown the two spies square off a few times before, but their matching attire would’ve provided an extra layer of mystery to this possible rematch. Why they would be in combat isn’t clear though, or why Natasha would’ve selected a new outfit so similar to Clint’s in the first place. It’s possible she took the fallout from The Snap much harder in this version of Avengers: Endgame and joined him on his killing spree. Or, perhaps this was based around their fight on Vormir and concealed who sacrificed their life until the last minute.

Without the Ronin lookalike design, Black Widow held to a costume more in line with what she’s worn before. This will continue in Black Widow too, where she’ll receive another new suit – which will come before her Endgame suit in the MCU timeline. But, Natasha will diverge from her usual look occasionally in the movie as well, with an all-white costume previously revealed for her. Since it is unlikely we will ever get a chance to see Natasha wear a uniform similar to these scrapped Avengers: Endgame Ronin designs now, it’ll be up to Hawkeye to provide us with additional looks at Barton in the black and gold.