Black Widow: Stranger Things’ David Harbour is Playing the Russian Captain America—Red Guardian&#823

With beloved Hopper’ apparent death from Netflix’s smashing TV series, Stranger Things, David Harbour has landed another glamouring role.

Ever since it was announced that David Harbour would be in Black Widow, a lot of people have been guessing who he’s playing in the film. Some have guessed that he’s playing Russian agent the Crimson Dynamo, but as it turns out, he’s playing a completely different Russian agent—the Red Guardian.

Harbour himself confirmed that he is playing Alexi Shostakov a.k.a. The Red Guardian a.k.a. Russia’s answer to Captain America.

As for now, we don’t have many details on how the character comes to life in the film, but we do know that he operated during the Cold War, and Harbour confirmed that he has an intimate relationship with Natasha Romanoff:

“[Black Widow] is a Russian operative, so [she and the Red Guardian] have some history together themselves. But there is a dynamic that involves where she’s gone beyond, in terms of joining the Avengers, and his reactions to that, but they’ve known each other for a while. There’s a complex history there that do get informed by the other movies.”

Although Red Guardian may not be the biggest name from Marvel Comics, he is an important one and a particularly interesting choice for the MCU’s Black Widow movie, because he’s the Soviet equivalent of Captain America.

In the comics, Shostakov was actually Natasha’s husband, and they both worked as agents for the Soviets. It’s already interesting to get a glimpse of Widow’s life before the Avengers, and the people she’s worked with, but I never thought they would try and bring in her possible ex-husband—which I think could make for some intriguing drama.

I also have to mention how amazing that they would get the guy who plays Hellboy as “The Red Guardian.” That’s just wonderfully meta.

Catch Black Widow when it hits theaters May 1, 2020.