Black Widow Director Teases That Florence Pugh Will Take Over From Scarlett Johansson

Donald Edmonds |

Jul 14, 2020

Black Widow director Cate Shortland recently teased what the outcome for Scarlett Johansson’s delayed Black Widow film will be.

The solo film has been a long time coming. Johansson first appeared as Black Widow in Iron Man 2 and would go on to reprise her role as the super spy in The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, and finally in Avengers: Endgame.

Marvel Studios has been discussing a Black Widow solo film going as far back as 2014, just four years after her first appearance in Iron Man 2.

Back then Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige hinted that the solo film would explore Black Widow’s past.

While discussing what would become Age of Ultron, he told Total Film via IGN, “We start filming the next Avengers film at the end of March. [Black] Widow’s part in that is very big. We learn more about her past and learn more about where she came from and how she became in that film.”

He added, “The notion of exploring that even further in her own film would be great, and we have some development work with that.”

Well, it appears things might have changed a little bit since 2014. Black Widow died during the events of Avengers: Endgame. After a brief battle with Hawkeye, she threw herself off the cliff on Vormir in order to secure the Soul Stone to undue Thanos’ snap of the Infinity Gauntlet.

This Black Widow film will take us to the past, but it won’t give us an origin story for Johansson’s Black Widow. The film will take place between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War.

The trailers for the film hints she will team up with her old family and face off against Taskmaster.

That family includes Red Guardian played by David Harbour, Melina Vostokoff played by Rachel Weisz, and Yelena Belova played by Florence Pugh.

However, given Black Widow is a super spy and the film will dive head first into the world of espionage, one has to expect there will be some twists and turns along the way.

In fact, leaked plot details indicate there are quite a few twists and turns along the way.

Not only are leaked plot details indicating this, but Black Widow director Cate Shortland also seems to be hinting at at least one of those twists.

She told Empire, “[Kevin Feige] realised that the audience would expect an origin story so, of course, we went in the opposite direction.”

Shortland added, “And we didn’t know how great Florence Pugh would be. We knew she would be great, but we didn’t know how great. Scarlett is so gracious, like, ‘Oh, I’m handing her the baton.’ So it’s going to propel another female storyline.”

She went on to detail that the film might actually be the end for Johansson’s Black Widow, “In Endgame, the fans were upset that Natasha did not have a funeral. Whereas Scarlett, when I spoke to her about it, said Natasha wouldn’t have wanted a funeral.”

Shortland continued, “She’s too private, and anyway, people don’t really know who she is. So what we did in this film was allow the ending to be the grief the individuals felt, rather than a big public outpouring. I think that’s a fitting ending for her.”

While we might not be getting an origin story for Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, it’s possible we could be getting one for Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova. Like Johansson’s Romanoff, the trailers detail she was trained in the Red Room, and she’ll also be weaving her own web of deceit.

However, that doesn’t mean Scarlett Johansson’s role with the character will be over. She just might be moving behind the camera instead.

Back in October 2019, Johansson appeared at Elle’s Women in Hollywood event where New York Times reporter Kyle Buchanan reported Johansson referred to the film as a “standalone franchise.”

What do you think of Yelena Belova taking on future movies in the MCU with Natasha Romanoff passing the torch to her? Sound off in the comments below or let’s talk about it on social media!