What’s Up With The “Black Widow” Movie?

After this year’s Endgame and Spider-Man: Far from Home what’s next for the MCU moving into Phase 4? One of the new movies coming from Marvel is a solo Black Widow movie starring Scarlett Johannson. The movie has been in the works for a while and may finally be moving forward. Black Widow would be the MCU’s second female-led movie following the success of Captain Marvel.

The rumors are that the film will be a prequel and therefore unaffected by the events of Endgame. The film would occur in the early 2000s, while Natasha is living in the U.S. following the collapse of the Soviet Union according to That Hashtag Show. This would place the movie before Black Widow’s introduction in Iron Man 2. Some events that fans would like to see take place in the prequel would be Black Widow’s first meeting with Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and her recruitment into S.H.I.E.L.D., that infamous Budapest mission the two refer to throughout the Phase 3 movies, and the time Black Widow ran into Bucky (Sebastian Stan) as the Winter Soldier as mentioned in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In the comics, Black Widow and the Winter Soldier had a relationship when they were both operatives for Russia. Of course, there is no indication that any of these would be included in the movie.

In addition to Johannson, the cast for Black Widow also includes Rachel Weisz, David Harbour (Stranger Things, Hellboy), O-T Fagbenle (The Handmaid’s Tale), and Florence Pugh (Fighting with My Family) as “a spy on the same level as Romanoff, likely her moral opposite.” At one point there were rumors that Emma Watson might be a possible co-lead, and that Andre Holland (Moonlight) might play a villain. The potential main villain in the movie may be Taskmaster.

Cate Shortland will direct the movie. Ned Benson was hired to rewrite the script by Jac Schaeffer. Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige will be producing. Production should begin in June in London, England. No official release date has been set but it is believed it will be May 2020.