With The Infinity Saga now complete, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is ready to move on to Phase Four, which will begin with BLACK WIDOW, Scarlett Johansson's long over-due standalone film. Marvel Studios screened the first footage from BLACK WIDOW at San Diego Comic-Con last weekend, and our own Paul Shirey said that it looked like a "solid action thriller in the vein of Jason Bourne."
While speaking with MTV post-SDCC, Scarlett Johansson opened up a little about the upcoming film when asked what sort of genre it will fit into. "It's pretty gritty, but it's also surprising… it's kind of in its own genre, I think," Johansson said. "Some of the movies that we talked about, we talked about The Fugitive, we talked about Logan, we talked about Terminator 2." Woman on the run? Looks like it. The actress also touched upon a few things which she wanted from the BLACK WIDOW movie, including that the character should be the same peson we've come to know over the past ten years. "I don't want it to feel like, you know, just because this character is a standalone, it's not grounded in the history we already know of the character," Johansson said. "So I wanted you to feel that the character is holding the weight of all we know." There's also been the question of whether or not we might see Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) in the film, given the close history between the two characters, but Johansson remained tight-lipped on that particular possibility while speaking with Good Morning America.
My lips are sealed. We have a lot of surprises up out sleeve, up our gauntlet.
In addition to Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff, BLACK WIDOW will also star David Harbour (Stranger Things) as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, O-T Fagbenle (The Handmaid's Tale) as Mason, an ally from Romanoff's past, Florence Pugh (MIDSOMMAR) as Yelena Belova, a sister-figure to Romanoff, and Rachel Weisz (THE FAVOURITE) as Melina, a seasoned spy. Cate Shortland (LORE) is directing BLACK WIDOW from a script by Jac Schaeffer (CAPTAIN MARVEL) and the film is slated for a May 1, 2020 release.