Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige have been promising a Black Widow solo movie for years. Well, it’s finally getting under way as the production studio has found its director in Cate Shortland.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel Studios met with over 70 potential candidates before deciding on Shortland. Shortland’s filmography isn’t the biggest. Her most notable work is last 2012’s Lore which she wrote and directed. The film takes place during World War II and follows a young woman as she discovers her parents’ beliefs and must put her faith in a person she has been taught to hate. Most recently Shortland worked on Berlin Syndrome which she directed. The film is about a holiday romance that leads to an obsessive relationship and finds an Australian photojournalist trapped in a Berlin apartment.
Other potential candidates for the job included Amma Asante, Maggie Betts, Melanie Laurent, and Kimberly Peirce. However, Shortland won the admiration of Scarlett Johansson who pushed for her to get the job.
The Black Widow solo film will be written by Jac Shaeffer who most recently wrote the remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels as well as The Hustle.
The film is expected to take place before the original The Avengers film and will see Johansson reprise her role as Natasha Romanova. It’s unclear if it will be an origin story or if it will look into the red in Black Widow’s ledger she’s famous for mentioning while she was interrogating Loki in The Avengers.
It would be really interesting to see if they explore the scenario Black Widow describes in the film as Hawkeye is sent to kill Black Widow, but decides to make a different call. I could definitely see a number of high profile assassinations by Black Widow working for the Soviet or Russian government drawing the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D. and sending Barton after her. It could be a Jason Bourne type thriller. If they are looking to adapt any source material they should look no further than Nathan Edmondson’s excellent run on Black Widow. There’s plenty of epic missions they can look into.
An earlier report indicated that the film would be a prequel and could feature the Winter Soldier. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Black Widow mentioned the two had crossed paths previously.
Scarlett previously talked about what she wanted out of a Black Widow film:
“I love playing this character and I think there’s definitely an opportunity to explore the Widow as a woman who has kind of come into her own and is making independent and active choices for herself probably for once in her life. She hasn’t always had that possibility. If it fit that criteria then, yes, I would want to do it.”
What do you think? Are you excited about the Black Widow film? What are you hoping to see Marvel Studios explore with this movie?