TheWrap reports that Marvel is moving forward with their Black Widow solo film starring Scarlett Johansson. They say screenwriter Jac Schaeffer (Nasty Women) has been tapped to write the film’s script, an MCU movie fans have been craving for years.
Both Kevin Feige and Scarlett had been teasing the film was on the horizon over the last year or so. This seemingly came to head when she was named the highest-grossing actress of all-time back in the summer of 2016.
Here’s what Kevin had to say about a Black Widow movie in May of 2016 when speaking with Deadline.
“I would say certainly the one creatively and emotionally that we are most committing to doing is Black Widow.”
“We think she’s an amazing character. We think Scarlett Johansson’s portrayal of her is amazing. She’s a lead Avenger and has amazing stories in her own right to tell that we think would be fun to turn into a standalone franchise.”
A solo film had been first in the works at Marvel going back to 2004, where David Hayter (X-Men 2, Watchmen) and Nicole Perlman (Guardians of The Galaxy, Captain Marvel) had been developing a script for Lionsgate but was ultimately killed. It remains to be seen if they’ll be taking any cues from that incarnation.
Scarlett Johansson first mentioned a desire for a solo film all the way back in 2009 and had recently revealed to Variety she has had conversations about the film with the studio. Suggesting the Black Widow movie could focus on the Widow Program and its setting could be in Russia.
” I think there’s a lot of opportunity to mine that storyline. She’s got a really rich origins story. There’s a lot of places you can go — you can bring it back to Russia. You could explore the Widow program. There’s all kinds of stuff that you could do with it. You could really uncover the identity of who this person is, where she comes from and where she’s part of.”
These comments seemingly were foreshadowing Widow having a spot in Phase Four, as we long expected.
A director has yet to be named but previously Joss Whedon, Russo Brothers, and Taika Waititi have suggested they’d want a crack at the film. However, we do suspect Marvel will be eyeing ladies to direct.
Marvel has yet to announce the project is officially in the works but might be already eyeing a release in 2020. The studio has set multiple release dates for unknown titles in 2020 and it‘s possible that their 2020 MCU lineup “could” look like this.
*Guardians of The Galaxy 3 (May 5th, 2020)
*Black Widow (August 7th, 2020)
*Doctor Strange 2 (November 6th, 2020)
SOURCE: THE WRAP