Eight years after the character's debut in "Iron Man 2," Marvel is finally moving forward with a standalone Black Widow movie. There is not much known about the project yet, but Scarlett Johansson, who portrays the role, has already had a few ideas even before the studio confirmed the film's development.
Talking to Variety back in 2016, the actress said Black Widow has "rich origin story" so there are a lot of ways the story could 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."
When asked if the standalone film would be a prequel, Johansson said not necessarily. As she explained, "it is a possibility," but it could also be something else like "Where do the Avengers go? They are underground. What happens then? What happens after it all falls apart?"
That would make sense especially since the already released "Red Sparrow," starring Jennifer Lawrence, has a story eerily similar to Black Widow's origin: a Russian ballerina-turned-special agent. Slashfilm suggests it could be an "Atomic Blonde"/"Bourne Identity" type of film where Natasha Romanoff is being hunted but is left isolated from the bombast of the Avengers. Regardless, Johansson said it should be unique and its own specific thing. "It would have to have its own specific vibe."
The untitled Black Widow movie is currently in the very early stages of development at Marvel with scriptwriter Jac Schaeffer. However, the studio has not officially greenlit the project for production, so there is no planned release date yet.
Should it advance into production, it will be the Marvel's second female-centric standalone movie following "Captain Marvel." Starring Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, the latter is scheduled to hit cinemas March 6 next year. In the meantime, fans can catch Black Widow in action next in "Avengers: Infinity War" this May 3.
