Disney, Marvel release the first trailer for 'Black Widow'

Disney and Marvel Studios have released the first teaser trailer for their upcoming "Black Widow," starring Scarlett Johansson as the titular superspy from previous Marvel Cinematic Universe films.

Set after the events of "Captain America: Civil War” (2016) and before she sacrificed her life in this year's "Avengers: Endgame," the movie finds Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow in Budapest, where she has gone to resolve an issue seemingly involving a tragic operation mentioned in both "Civil War" and "The Avengers" (2012).

"I heard you had to leave in a hurry," U.S. Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt) says in voice-over. "It's never easy these days," Natasha responds. "So what are you going to do?" asks Ross. "I've lived a lot of lives," Natasha answers, flipping through a stack of fake-identity cards. "But I'm done running from my past."

Her voyage home takes Natasha to an apartment where she confronts a fellow Black Widow, Yelena (Florence Pugh) — besting her in hand-to-hand combat and then saying, "It's good to see you, too, Sis." They later sit at a dinner table with dour Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz) and exuberant Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian (David Harbour), who says proudly, "Family. Back together again" — to which Yelena rolls her eyes and Melina tells him with comfortable familiarity, "You got fat."

Interspersed are action scenes that include a parade of ominous vehicles rushing through a rural dirt road, and of a blond-haired man in a suit surrounded by mercenaries or paramilitary and a tractor trailer with Varga and Company, Maritime Supply, emblazoned across it in Hungarian. Elsewhere, wearing high-tech black armor and a face-covering helmet, riding a tank through city streets, a man fires an arrow and later fights Red Guardian. And Natasha and Yelena together attack what appears to be a Siberian compound of armed soldiers.

The 2-minute, 8-second teaser trailer, which went up at 3:01 a.m., had amassed more than 11 million YouTube views and nearly 13 million Twitter views as of 5 p.m.

Directed by Cate Shortland and also starring O.T. Fagbenle as a fixer named Mason, "Black Widow" is set to open May 1, inaugurating Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.