Black Widow: 10 Questions About The Red Room, Answered

Though the Red Room has been a staple in Marvel comics for over two decades, fans haven’t been able to see much of it in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – until now. The training facility is a big part of Black Widow’s background in the comics, so it makes sense that fans would get their best look at it in the character’s solo movie.

The Red Room is a training facility in Marvel’s version of Russia that aims to turn young girls into world-class spies and assassins. Combat training, fight skills, weapons usage, and espionage are all part of the curriculum – whether the girls want to be there or not. Even with what appears in Black Widow, there’s still a lot more about the program for fans to learn.

10 When Did The Red Room First Appear In Comics

Natasha Romanoff made her comic book debut in 1964, but the Red Room didn’t debut with her. Instead, it would take decades before her background was retconned to include the Red Room.

In 1998, Marvel’s Shadows And Light included multiple stories about different characters. One of those was Black Widow: Freefall. In it, Black Widow’s history was expanded upon to reveal her being raised in the Red Room program. It took nearly 35 years before readers were treated to details about her background as a spy.

9 What Was The Cover Story For Red Room Agents

It couldn’t exactly be common knowledge that a training facility full of young women was turning out spies. Instead, the plan for the Red Room was to implant false memories in all of their spies, making them believe they were all professional ballerinas.

This particular retcon was an easy one for Black Widow since the earlier storyline for Natasha involved her (as a ballerina) married to a Soviet hero. This idea is even referenced in the MCU, with Natasha being shown in ballet lessons in the fantastic Avengers: Age Of Ultron flashbacks.

8 Who Else Is A Red Room Graduate

Though Natasha might be the most famous to come out of the Red Room, she’s hardly the only character affiliated with it. Yelena Belova, the comic book Black Widow to follow in her footsteps, is also a product of the Red Room.

The Red Widow, Ava Orlova, also came out of the Red Room at a very young age. Natasha actually rescued her from criminals when she was only nine. Other young women in the program in the comics include characters like Ying Liu and Ninotchka. Though he didn’t graduate from the program, the Winter Soldier did teach combat skills in the Red Room as well.

7 Which Superhero Had A Child Raised In The Red Room

While many of the women raised in the Red Room know nothing about their birth families, that isn’t true for one of them. Nadia, raised in the Red Room from infancy, saw her true parentage revealed to her by instructors when they realized that she was a quick study in scientific subjects.

Her father was Ant-Man Hank Pym, and her mother was his wife Maria Trovaya. Eventually, Nadia learned as much as she could about the heroes in her family and found a way to break out of the Red Room. While she was only called Nadia in the facility, she legally changed her name to Nadia Van Dyne when she began living with her stepmother Janet.

6 Is The Black Widow Movie The Red Room’s First On-Screen Appearance

Other than flashbacks in Age Of Ultron, Black Widow marks the first time the Red Room is seen properly in the movie arm of the MCU. It has, however, already appeared in the TV arm of the MCU.

In Agent Carter, the series explored the early stages of what would become the Red Room through a character using the name Dottie Underwood. Dottie became obsessed with Peggy Carter while working for an organization called Leviathan. Flashbacks to her childhood showed her training in a Russian facility full of little girls, though it was never officially called the Red Room on screen.

5 What’s Different About The Agent Carter Version Of The Red Room

Setting aside the obvious difference of how much technology changes in more than five decades, there is one big difference in the Red Room of Agent Carter’s day. While it’s clear that the leaders of the modern Red Room have no problem of killing agents that are no longer useful to them or are a threat, the training process itself appears to be different.

In Agent Carter, when the young girls are sparring and learning new fighting skills, they don’t advance simply by beating one another. The little girl who grows up to be Dottie actually snaps the neck of a friend when she’s instructed to in order to win her match. That likely doesn’t happen in the modern-day, as some women, like Melina Vostokoff, go through the Red Room training multiple times.

4 What Animated Movie Is Used To Train The Early Widows

The proto-Widows in the 1940s-set Agent Carter are shown learning English (and getting a dose off subliminal messages) from an animated movie. That movie happens to be Disney’s Snow White And The Seven Dwarves.

Not only is it era-appropriate since the movie was released in 1938, but it’s also a nice bit of corporate synergy since Marvel now falls under the Disney umbrella. It’s also echoed in 2021’s Black Widow as the opening credits also depict images from animated movies amongst the montage of young girls being forcibly taken for the Black Widow program.

3 How Has The Red Room Been Used In Marvel Animated Projects

Instead of paying a visit to the Red Room, Marvel’s animated series likes to make the term an Easter egg of sorts for fans.

In Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Black Widow uses the term as a password for her computer. In Avengers Assembled, it’s a codeword that actually activates programming in Black Widow’s brain to knock her out. It’s a clever way to include her history in the animated series without having to delve too much into the Red Room itself.

2 Are All The Widows Actually Russian

While the Black Widow program is initially created as a secret arm of the KGB in Marvel comics, not every person in the Red Room program is Russian. That’s especially true in the MCU’s version of it.

Though the Red Room itself is in Russia and all of the operatives appear to speak the language, the girls that grow up in the facility come from all over the world. That’s reflected in the opening credits, as the girls are brought to Russia in shipping containers, and in the casting  as well. According to director Cate Shortland, the casting department for the movie sought out actresses from all over the globe to play the Widows. The actresses cast included those of French, South African, Chinese, Korean, and British backgrounds.

1 What’s Another Name For The Red Room

In the MCU, the training facility is only known as the Red Room so far. In the comics, however, there was another name given to it – after Natasha already believed the Red Room had been destroyed.

In the third volume of the Black Widow solo series, Natasha discovered that young women were still be taken, trained, and used by what seemed like a new group. It was called 2R, which was really just an updated form of Red Room with many of the same techniques and goals as when she went through the program years earlier.

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