An alternate Black Widow ending might have given Nat a sweeter send-off

This year’s Black Widow sits at an awkward position in the timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s a flashback movie that never really acknowledges its nature as such—beyond a mid-credits scene that’s as much about trying to set up a future franchise opportunity, as it is a reminder that the film’s lead character died during one of the most successful movies ever made. (For Hawkeye! The indignity.) The film—set between 2016's Civil War and 2018's Infinity War—attempts to bring Natasha Romanoff’s story full-circle, ending on her departing to go help Captain America (and bidding farewell to O-T Fagbenle’s fixer character, who sort of has to stand in for all her other espionage-world friends). But an alternate ending scene for the movie has now been revealed, one that might have made a little more of the fact that we all knew this would be Scarlett Johansson’s final turn as the character (even before her legal disagreements with Disney made that fact a straight-up certainty).

Per Digital Spy, said scene has now become available as Black Widow has made its (earlier than anticipated) move over to a wider digital release, after its period of Disney+ premium exclusivity. Those pseudo-home-releases come complete with bonus features (what a novelty!), including deleted scenes, one of which is pretty clearly either an alternate ending, or a potential supplement to the existing one.

In said scene (titled “Ohio”), Natasha returns to her childhood home in the aftermath of the movie’s events. (She’s got the blond Infinity War hair at this point, too.) As she somberly looks at the house, kids are playing nearby, pretending to be various Avengers. The kid playing as Black Widow herself approaches, and “fires” a Widow’s Bite at Nat, who wistfully returns it. End of scene.

So, yeah: Sweet! Or, at least, a bit sweeter than what we got—touching gently on themes of heroism, inspiration, and redemption—and a better acknowledgment that Black Widow is the real-world ending point for this character, no matter how many magic cliffs she ends up throwing herself off in the already-written future.