Who is Dreykov in Black Widow Explained

Warning! This article may contain spoilers for Black Widow. Read at your own risk!

Under the assumption of many, the big bad in Black Widow is the Taskmaster who mimics the movements of the opponent. However, there is someone bigger behind the character as there is someone in control of everything in the Red Room: General Dreykov. Who is he and how does he fit in the story?

Who is Dreykov in Black Widow?

Credit: Marvel Studios

Also called General Dreykov, he is the person who built the Red Room and is in control of all the Black Widows. He is the big guy who calls the shots in the hierarchy, he chooses the targets, and he decides what the widows would do and go after. He is also the same guy that created the Taskmaster in some sinister way.

Dreykov is a Russian, a member of the Soviet Armed Forces who heads the Red Room and takes on little girls to train to be widows. It was revealed in Black Widow that he was a former ally of the Red Guardian before he imprisoned him for the rest of his life had he not been taken by Natasha and Yelena to escape.

Natasha also targeted him and she thought that he was already dead, however, Yelena tells her that Dreykov is still alive and off the radar. Later in the film, it was confirmed that he is alive and he was out of the radar of everyone for all those years as he has a tower reaching the clouds, the Red Room, where the location would be hard to determine as it was above everyone else.

Credit: Marvel Studios

For years, he had been hiding after everyone thought he died in Budapest. Over the years, he harbored many little girls subjecting them into the Red Room and making an army of widows by giving them a dose of his control and taking away their free will making them susceptible to orders such as the ones Dreykov gives. He created the Taskmaster from his very own daughter, Antonia, as well.

A misogynist, to say the least, he looks at little girls as some "natural resource the world has too much of." With these women looking out for each other, Natasha, together with Yelena, Red Guardian, and Melina Vostokoff, plotted a plan to eliminate Dreykov for once and for all. In the end, they were successful as Yelena blew off the chopper that he was in.

See Dreykov in Black Widow, now out in theaters and on Disney Plus Premier Access.

Related: Black Widow Director Teases Sequel Featuring Yelena Belova