Scarlett Johansson, better known as Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is pregnant, which is great for the actress and fiancé Romain Dauriac. Now, before you think this is some tabloid story, the only reason we're even bringing it up is because of this little movie she's supposed to start filming next month called THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON. Obviously, since Johansson is pregnant the clock is ticking on what she can accomplish in a skintight catsuit and E! Online is reporting that "they're going to fast-track her scenes" for the sequel with the star reporting to set on April 5, just after she wraps the CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER press tour.
While this isn't the first time a production has had to work around a pregnancy, the main issue for Johansson is that director Joss Whedon has said that Black Widow would be "huge" part of the sequel.
“Natasha is a huge part of the sequel because you do want to concentrate on the people who don’t have their own franchises. Although she in Cap 2, [and] she’s great. She was the most fun for me because she’s not a hero, you know, and it’s something that I read—and I feel bad that I can’t remember who wrote the book—but it’s in one of the books explaining, ‘These guys are heroes, you are a spy. It’s a different thing—it’s a different skill set—and you don’t have their moral high ground or any of that good stuff.’ And that just makes her so interesting to me. So yeah, the stuff I’ve got going on with her in the second one is killer.”
I'm thinking that the "huge" part may be downgraded once ScarJo shows up on set, unless her part of the action in the sequel is going to be behind a computer monitor, which is typically reserved for Cobie Smulders' Agent Maria Hill. However it shakes out, at least we'll have Black Widow back in the mix and we're always happy to have however much ScarJo as we can. Could this mean a beef up in the other female roles, such as Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch or possibly another female role (Ms. Marvel, perhaps…)?
THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON opens on May 1, 2015.