Black Widow spoilers to follow.
Marvel president Kevin Feige has weighed in on whether or not David Harbour's Red Guardian did ever fight Captain America like he claims so often throughout Black Widow.
The character, who is revealed to have been somewhat of a father figure to a young Natasha Romanoff in the mid 1990s, reunites with the titular Avenger in the new MCU movie, which is set after the events of Captain America: Civil War.
On the run from Thaddeus Ross, the Secretary of State who wants her and Steve Rogers arrested after breaking the Sokovia Accords, Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) teams up with her "family" to take down the Red Room, the organisation that turned her – and many other girls – into brainwashed assassins.
Related: Black Widow director responds to whether movie's ending has a plot hole
The film's opening sequence explains that Red Guardian, who was known back then as Alexei, allowed Natasha and her "sister" Yelena to be taken by Red Room director Dreykov (Ray Winstone) after his and partner Melina's (Rachel Weisz) undercover mission in Ohio was compromised.
But instead of trying to make amends 20 years later, the former Soviet superhero's first priority is to ask Natasha if Cap ever spoke about him. You know, in between saving the world?
Prior to that, in prison, Alexei boasts to his fellow inmates about besting Cap in a fight back in the early 1980s, which prompts someone to inform him that Rogers was out of action during that time period.
While taking part in a #BlackWidowWatchParty with fans yesterday (July 20), Feige echoed the challenger's sentiment while responding to a tweet that read: "Did Red Guardian actually fight Captain America back in his glory days?"
Related: All the ways Black Widow's Red Guardian could have met Captain America
"Good question... Although, wasn't Captain America frozen in ice then?" he replied, referencing how Cap wasn't thawed out until 2011.
"Part of the fun thing about Alexei is that I wasn't interested in reality. He doesn't even know that he's lying," Harbour joked to Inverse earlier this month. "Sometimes as an actor, I'll have to know the reality because I'll know [if] the character is lying. But Alexei simply believes this stuff is true.
"There's a thing, confabulation... where people actually just believe their lies to such a degree that even when confronted with reality, they can't process it. It doesn't make sense [to them]."
Black Widow is out now in UK and US cinemas, and is also streaming on Disney+ with Premier Access.
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