I’ve been waiting for a Black Widow film since the character was announced for Iron Man 2. And I’m still waiting. Natasha Romanoff’s story has all the elements that make the MCU pop and more! But I’m still waiting.
The following films and television series feature some combination of elements key to a Black Widow film or television series: communists, soviets, brainwashing, spies, counter-terrorism, tiny pretty girls who can beat you up or blow you up without breaking a sweat or making a sound. They are my Black Widow AUs.
Film
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Communists brainwash an American soldier to assassinate a politician and steal an election. Angela Lansbury’s Eleanor Shaw is the Black Widow and she is an unrepentant villain.
Buy: The Manchurian Candidate (Special Edition)
Nikita (1990)
A troubled young woman is trained to be an elite assassin, but it’s not what she really wants. Anne Parillaud plays Nikita, the junkie turned Black Widow.
Buy: La Femme Nikita [Blu-ray]
Salt (2010)
A captured Russian spy outs a top CIA agent as one of their own. Angelina Jolie plays the brilliant operative/possible sleeper assassin Evelyn Salt.
Buy: Salt
Hanna (2011)
Ex-CIA operative trains his daughter to be an assassin in the freezing wilderness. Both young Hanna, played by Saorise Ronan, and antagonist Marisa, played by Cate Blanchet, are variations on a Black Widow archetype.
Buy: Hanna [Blu-ray]
Lucy (2014)
This one doesn’t follow the formula of a Black Widow type film, but it stars Scarlett Johansson as the titular Lucy, who gains extraordinary abilities.
Buy: Lucy (Blu-ray + DVD + DIGITAL HD)
Barely Lethal (2015)
The government runs a school for orphans turned assassins. Stars Hailee Steinfeld, Sophie Turner, and Jessica Alba as Black Widows and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury (undercover as the school’s headmaster Hardman).
Buy: Barely Lethal [DVD + Digital]
Television
La Femme Nikita (1997-2001)
In this adaptation of the film, Peta Wilson’s Nikita is an innocent trapped into life as a spy and assassin working for a government funded counterterrorism organization. Probably comes the closest to Natasha’s story, she even has a romance with her weapons instructor.
Buy: La Femme Nikita: The Complete Seasons 1-5
Gunslinger Girl (2003-2004, 2008)
Anime adaptation of the manga of the same name in which young girls who have experienced trauma are made into cyborg assassins. Disturbing and amazing.
Buy: Gunslinger Girl: Complete Collection (includes OVA’s)
Nikita (2010-2013)
Another Nikita adaptation, this one uses elements from both the original film and the earlier tv series. Maggie Q plays Nikita, the spy who got away and now returns to destroy the organization from within.
Buy: Nikita: The Complete Series
The Blacklist (2013-present)
An ex-spy turned international criminal enlists a rookie FBI agent to track down a list of his enemies and peers. Starts out as a standard crime procedural, becomes a Black Widow story at the end of season two (a sleeper agent sleeper agent story if you will).
The Americans (2013-present)
Russian spies live as a cookie cutter American family at the height of the Cold War. An eighties Black Widow story starring Keri Russell, and one of the best television series on right now.
Buy: The Americans: Season 1
