by A new art book that sheds additional insight on the contentious MCU treatment of Taskmaster was recently revealed, and it has some fascinating information regarding the making of Black Widow.
The portrayal of the Marvel villain by Black Widow startled viewers; the disclosure of Antonia Dreykov, rather than Tony Masters, represented a considerable departure from the Taskmaster that fans are most accustomed to.
This diversion from the original plan upset many viewers, and some even messaged the film’s creators to express their displeasure, with one calling it the “biggest betrayal of [their] life.”
A new report from Marvel’s Black Widow: The Art of the Movie provided further details on the making of the MCU’s contentious Taskmaster. Many people are now expecting that the character will be repaired in upcoming instalments.
Why Black Widow Changed Taskmaster’s Design
New remarks from Andy Park, Director of Visual Development at Marvel Studios, state that there were a number of reasons why the company had to alter Taskmaster’s appearance before the character made his or her live-action debut in Black Widow.
Due to parallels with other Marvel characters that have already dabbled in live-action, such as Redskull and Crossbones, Marvel decided early on not to go “full skull-head.”
The creators of Black Widow believed that Taskmaster needed to be changed because both villains primarily feature skulls in their character designs.
“From the beginning, we didn’t want to go full skull-head… because by this point we’ve done over twenty films, and Red Skull and Crossbones are characters who have already had a skull motif.”
After all, by the time Taskmaster debuted, Marvel had already made 20 films in the series. As a result, the studio had to think of new ways to “[harken] back to the skull” in a way that was specific to the character.
The concept of a “ski-goggle visor” was created by Senior Concept Illustrator Jackson Sze during the original design phase:
“We wanted to explore a different way of harkening back to the skull. We were all doing versions of Taskmaster, and Senior Concept Illustrator Jackson Sze used more of a ski-goggle visor.”
Director of Black Widow Cate Shortland reportedly like the “tactical, military goggle” for the character, according to Park. After that, the decision was a constant in Taskmaster design:
“Senior Concept Illustrator Jackson Sze used more of a ski-goggle visor that Cate Shortland really took to in one of his initial designs-so from that point on, all the versions we did had that kind of tactical, military goggle.”
Sze made this decision because he regarded his job as fusing “iconic comic book designs with real-world utility” and felt that a “grounded world ” would not go in with the gritty and “emotive animated skull” of Marvel’s Black Widow: Renegade.
“Senior Concept Illustrator Jackson Sze sees his role as marrying iconic comic book designs with real-world utility and function..An emotive animated skull would probably not work in the realistic, grounded world of this movie.”
The visor was a component of a broader project to adapt the iconic Taskmaster from comic books to a contemporary military helmet, and Taskmaster’s aptitude for analysing other fighters’ combat styles complemented a helmet visor “with futuristic tech and advanced HUD elements:“
“The idea was to translate the iconic skull face of Taskmaster onto a modern military helmet. Given that the character analyzes fighting techniques of other combatants, I thought a helmet visor with futuristic tech and.advanced HUD elements could tell that story.”
Was Taskmaster’s New Look a Good Decision?
One of several choices Taskmaster made that turned out to be unpopular was the design. The alteration of Taskmaster’s appearance suggests that Marvel wanted to take the well-known nemesis in a another path.
When the movie first debuted, viewers made fun of Taskmaster, saying that it resembled a power ranger or appeared as though it was about to attend a paintball game.
While many were okay with Taskmaster not wearing his trademark orange cape, many would have liked the film employ at least the look from PlayStation’s Spider-Man game. It was considered as a downgrade from one of the coolest Marvel designs to date.
But Taskmaster’s story didn’t end with Black Widow; he’ll be back in the next Marvel movie Thunderbolts.
Many people were looking forward to the show in the hopes that Marvel Studios would fix the Taskmaster and make him similar to Tony Masters’ Taskmaster in Thunderbolts.
Despite the character’s unfavourable design, the Marvel creative team did manage in integrating Taskmaster into the Black Widow universe by giving him a more realistic appearance.
Given the criticism, Marvel may change how the character is shown moving forward, but on the other hand, the Black Widow version might be given a fresh lease on life so that the shift is easier for fans to accept.
Fans will have to wait a year until Taskmaster’s return for Thunderbolts on July 26, 2024, after Black Widow premieres on Disney+.
