Black Widow Secretly Confirmed Why Iron Man Promoted Happy Hogan

Warning: This post contains SPOILERS for Black Widow.

Of all of Black Widow‘s Easter eggs and links to other MCU movies and TV shows, the most surprising sees a subtle explanation for why Happy Hogan was promoted from his security job in Spider-Man: Homecoming. The long-serving former boxer – played by Jon Favreau, of course – saw the opportunity for a better gig (which presumably saw him beaten up fewer times than being Iron Man’s bodyguard) in Tom Holland’s first stand-alone, and the ending of Black Widow may explain exactly why Stark was looking to move his predecessor on.

Somewhat inevitably, Scarlett Johansson’s final movie as Natasha Romanoff was as close to a completely stand-alone release as is possible in the MCU. Though the events of Black Widow occur simultaneously with the ending of Captain America: Civil War and lead into her reunion with the Secret Avengers in Avengers: Infinity War, it very much feels like a step to the side. This was an opportunity to finally tell Natasha’s story and tying it too much to other MCU events would have been a betrayal of that promise. That said, there were still narrative links to explore.

The easiest nod to a past MCU event actually happens as Natasha and the MCU’s new “finder” Mason (OT Fagbenle) are setting up Black Widow going to help Steve Rogers break the Avengers out of the Raft prison. He presents her with a Quinjet – the same one she pilots in Infinity War – explaining exactly how Captain America was able to get himself to a high-security secret prison in the middle of the ocean. More importantly for Happy Hogan, though, is where Mason got the Quinjet from. Clearly, it is Avengers property and by extension belongs to Tony Stark, the self-confessed bankroller of the Avengers at this point. Stealing a Quinjet from Stark would have resulted in punishment for whoever was in charge of inventory for the Avengers.

It’s subtle, but that explains why Tony Stark is looking for a new head of Asset Management in Homecoming, which is more than just a joke at Peter Parker’s expense (since Stark seems to view him as an asset too and assigns Happy to babysit him). Stark suggests that his former “forehead of security” and driver has been looking for a promotion, much to his amusement, and Black Widow‘s ending finally explains why such an important position wasn’t filled. The Avengers tech and equipment alone clearly needed someone to oversee it, particularly since Far From Home proved exactly how easy it could fall into the wrong hands and while Tony was always frivolous, the idea of him not having that part of his business sewn up, particularly with Pepper Potts involved too, was always illogical.

While this may not have been one of the more pressing mysteries that the MCU is yet to answer, the fact that Black Widow so cleverly fills in the gaps speaks to the continued high levels of narrative web-spinning even stand-alone Marvel movies can pull off. Yes, the audience will come away talking about how Black Widow answers the Budapest mystery from The Avengers, but it also explains Loki’s more subtle “Dreykov’s daughter” line in the same movie and adds this smart detail to the background of Spider-Man: Homecoming too. That’s good story-telling.

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Simon Gallagher
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Simon is a veteran editor who has been writing online since 2010 – long before anyone wanted to read his work. He loves Clueless. Like, a lot.

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