Marvel Adds Fourth Name to Short List of Female Directors for Black Widow Movie

As one of the first Marvel superheroes to appear in a Marvel Studios film and the first female superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) seemed the odds-on favorite to be the first female superhero to star in her own movie. Marvel President Kevin Feige even promised fans back in 2016 that the studio was “committing to” making a Black Widow movie. Instead, Johansson moved on to use her star power to headline a string of scif-fi and action movies — Under the Skin, Lucy, Ghost in the Shell — while Marvel slated Captain Marvel starring Brie Larson as its first female-led franchise.

Eight years since her debut in Iron Man 2, Black Widow is finally being prepped for the solo treatment, with Marvel hiring Jac Schaeffer to pen a script earlier this year and Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry) being added to a short list of all female directors in consideration to helm the movie, including Amma Asante (Belle), Cate Shortland (Berlin Syndrome) and Maggie Betts (Novitiate). Still, Johansson is the one who made the character famous and she doesn’t sound too enthused about the idea of carrying a franchise about the character at this point in her life, as she told ET in March:

I would want to in the right context and for the film to fit where I’m at, where I am in my life. I mean I’ve played this character for a long time. It’s been probably like eight years or more, and so much has happened in my life, my life as a performer and happened in my life personally.

Like most Marvel fans, we have always wanted to see a Black Widow movie, but we kinda sorta feel like we already did, twice, after watching Atomic Blonde and Red Sparrow. For the movie to work, Marvel would have to do something completely unique with the whole Russian super spy angle and Johansson would have to return to the role, with perhaps a Winter Solider (Sebastian Stan) appearance thrown in for good measure.