‘Black Widow’ Actor Reveals His MCU Cameo Ties Into The Winter Guard Russian Superteam & Mutants

**Minor spoilers ahead for “Black Widow.”**

Marvel‘s “Black Widow” had plenty of Easter Eggs and a big standout was the prison arm wrestling scene when David Harbour‘s Red Guardian snaps the wrist of a large fella that was willing to call him out on his tall tales of battling against Captain America, who is pointed out to be frozen at this point time. 

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Harbour’s Red Guardian says to him, “are you calling me a liar, Ursa?” and refers to Ursa as a “big bear” after snapping his wrist. 

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Hulking Dutch bodybuilder/actor Olivier Richters (“The King’s Man,” “Borderlands“) has taken to Instagram (see below) to confirm that the role he played in “Black Widow” was indeed Major Mikhail Ursus, also known as Ursa Major. The character is part of the Russian super-team The Winter Guard (Red Guardian is a member) and happens to be a mutant, which explains his giant bear form (not shown in the film). 

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Hypothetically, Alexei might not have been lying about fighting Steve Rogers because Captain America did go back in time to be with Hayley Atwell‘s Peggy Carter at the end of “Avengers: Endgame” and could have had some unseen adventures. He also earnestly tells Black Widow to say hi to Captain America for him later on in the movie, and it doesn’t appear to be like he’s carrying on some big lie. Those adventures during the Cold War might have included a Marvel team like The Invaders that ran into the Red Guardian or The Winter Guard leading to a reveal that Rogers was both active and frozen at the same time. Or could he be a variant? Marvel is clearly setting something up here with the idea that Alexei fought Captain America, but no one believes him because he was still on ice at that time.

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David Harbour has mentioned being open to the idea of returning to the Red Guardian role for a solo movie or Disney+ project to The Wrap and teased early talks with Marvel Studios about the character’s future during a chat with Collider. In an interview with D23 Inside Disney podcast, Marvel’s Kevin Feige says that it’s “a safe bet” that we’ll see both Rachel Weisz‘s Melina Vostokoff (Iron Maiden incarnation?) and Harbour’s Alexei Shostakov return to the MCU at some point. However, it’s unclear if this little extra easter egg will ever be answered in the MCU or if it’ll be a little wink for fans.