Regardless of whether you liked the character or not, one thing that rings true with Taskmaster in Black Widow is that the character was underutilized. There’s a lot left to be desired with what they gave us but the character does make it out in the end which leaves the door open for any future appearances. We asked Antonia Dreykov herself, Olga Kurylenko what she thought of a possible Taskmaster come back down the road and she gave a surprisingly candid answer about it.
Unfortunately, I don’t know if I’ll be returning. It’s not up to me. You can ask Marvel that [laughs]. If I was, obviously what would be great is to know more about the character because she was just kind of introduced here. There was no time and no story to develop. And the thing is there’s so much to explore about the character. There’s a lot to do with it .
Taskmaster in the comics is a fan-favorite villain who not only brings a lot of killer action with him but also a lot of attitudes. Black Widow reinvented Taskmaster in a pretty big way, one that distances itself from the comics to serve what the writers envisioned for the film’s larger sinister Red Room plot. Kurylenko shared with us what discussions she had with director Cate Shortland on how to portray such a silent character.
With Cate, we discussed the backstory and all the pain Antonia might have gone through. Things we know, things we don’t know yet. It was about the fact that behind that armor and killing machine, there is a human being. A human who was made to be bad. She wasn’t born bad. She’s manipulated, abused, gone through trauma – both physical and psychological. It was the conflict within one person. We talked about her soul because she does have one. When she’s in that armor, you don’t think there isn’t. That’s what was fascinating.
