Marvel fans have been demanding a solo outing for Avengers: Infinity War star Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow for years… and, finally, mercifully, it’s now happening.
The studio is forging ahead on an Avengers spin-off for Johansson and has hired writer Jac Schaeffer to begin working on a script, according to TheWrap. It remains to be seen if the project will make it to the big screen, but hiring Schaeffer is a good omen.
She recently had her Hollywood breakthrough writing a female-led reboot of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels called Nasty Women, to star Rebel Wilson and Anne Hathaway as competing con-women.
Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige said as far back as 2016 that there were long-term plans to branch off Black Widow into her own adventure.
“I would say certainly the one [character] creatively and emotionally that we are most committing to doing is Black Widow,” he said at the time.
“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 stand-alone franchise.”
Marvel legend Stan Lee more recently hinted in November that a Black Widow project was brewing. In addition to Black Widow, Thor: Ragnarok’s Tessa Thompson has revealed that the female stars of the MCU recently pitched a movie uniting all of Marvel’s heroines.
“That’s the thing that’s so fantastic about Kevin is you always get general interest from him,” she said. "At least when you start speaking, and then you might get 10 minutes in, and you sense that maybe something is not as exciting.
“But no, he’s really open to collaboration and wants to hear what we’re interested in.”
There is no Black Widow release date yet, but Scarlett Johansson will next be seen in Avengers: Infinity War later this year.