Somewhere in some far off alternate universe, the world would’ve witnessed Phase 4’s first movie; Black Widow; and the beginning of a new era for the MCU.
Because of the pandemic fans across the world are very anxious to see Scarlett Johansson’s longed overdue solo outing adventure. Set between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, Black Widow will see Natasha Romanoff confronting a dangerous conspiracy that has ties to her past before she became an Avenger.
While speaking with Empire on their Big Screen Preview issue, director Cate Shortland hinted that Florence Pugh’s character; Yelena Belova; may take the mantle as the next Black Widow in the MCU.
Shortland explains that “[Kevin Feige] realized that the audience would expect an origin story so, of course, we went in the opposite direction,” Shortland then goes to say that “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.”
Shortland’s comments do seem to make a lot of sense with what happened in Avengers: Endgame.. For those who don’t know about Pugh’s character, Yelena Belova was created by Devin Grayson and J.G. Jones. In the comics, Yelena is the second person to take on the Black Widow moniker in the Marvel universe. Her first official appearance in the Marvel-616 universe was in Inhumans #5 (March 1999).
Speaking of Endgame, Cate Shortland also talks about why Natasha didn’t receive funereal. She goes on by saying “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.” To me personally, I think Black Widow will give fans some much-needed closure on Scarlet Johansson’s character that Endgame didn’t give us.
As of now, the film is slated to be released in theaters on November 6th. I for one am hoping that date sticks.
