In Black Widow, Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff was forced to face off against dozens of women indoctrinated into the Red Room Program. Even Taskmaster ended up being a victim and pawn of the Red Room as her arc came to a close.
By the end of the film, all of them are saved by Black Widow and Florence Pugh's Yelena. This leaves free them to live their lives how they wish without being controlled or forced to kill, but some might have grown to like it.
During a Black Widow watch party in July, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige actually teased that one specific Widow agent would make a cameo in a future film. It looks like that cameo came sooner than expected in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
One Black Widow Couldn't Give Up Fighting In Shang-Chi
Multiple World Wushu Champion and actress Jade Xu appeared in Black Widow as one of its many brainwashed assassins. However, by the end of the film, Natasha frees her and the rest of the Widows from their chemically induced mind control.
They all went their separate ways to live their own lives, but it seems like Xu's Widow liked fighting a little too much to give it up entirely. Since Shang-Chi was released in theaters, fans quickly noticed that Jade Xu made a quick cameo in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings when the titular character visits a fight club called the Golden Daggers.
Fans can now see her cameo clearly with the newly released clip from the film, which shows her in one of the "low-level fights" against a man enhanced by Extremis, something that hasn't been seen since Iron Man 3.
Ringmaster Jon Jon even cheered her on, "Nice one, Helen!" while giving audiences a name to attach to Xu's character.
The full clip can be watched below:
Hope For Taskmaster Return
From the way Jon Jon spoke to Helen, it seems that she's a regular at the fight club, which makes sense as it's been at least seven years since she was freed from the Red Room. However, it also means that not everyone who was freed went back to peaceful lives.
After all, they were kidnapped as children and forced into becoming assassins, so many of them might not see it as possible to go back to a "normal" life. Instead, like Helen, many of them likely returned to employing the skills they were forced to learn for their own benefit, whether it be for sport or profit.
One way that Olga Kurylenko's Taskmaster could return is after having tried to have a normal life again, but after being a living weapon her whole life, she just couldn't. So, she uses her skills for profit rather than amusement and becomes a mercenary like her comic book counterpart.
Heck, maybe since Black Widow, she changed her last name from Antonia Dreykov to Antonia Masters. It would certainly be one step to making Taskmaster fans happier by making her a recurring anti-hero or villain.
