The Black Widow origin film director announces Florence Pugh as the heir to the Black Widow character. 

A Proper Goodbye

Director Cate Shortland confirms Scarlett Johanson is handing the Black Widow baton off to Florence Pugh. Shortland explained in the upcoming Black Widow movie, Natasha Romanoff will relinquish over to a new character in the Marvel Universe, Yelena Belova. Because the Black Widow character never got the proper send off in Endgame, the upcoming solo movie will serve as a proper goodbye to Johansson’s character. 

Shortland said, “In Endgame, the fans were upset that Natasha did not have a funeral. Whereas Scarlett, when I spoke to her about it, said Natasha wouldn’t have wanted a funeral. She’s too private, and anyway, people don’t really know who she is. So what we did in this film was allow the ending to be the grief the individuals felt, rather than a big public outpouring. I think that’s a fitting ending for her.” 

Not a Typical Origin Story

President of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige explained that audiences would be expecting a typical Romanoff origin story. So the creative team at Marvel wanted to do something unexpected with Black Widow.

Shortland praises Pugh’s Marvel debut by saying, “we didn’t know how great Florence Pugh would be. We knew she would be great, but we didn’t know how great. Scarlett is gracious, like, ‘Oh, I’m handing her the baton.’ So it’s going to propel another female storyline.” 

From Indie Films to Marvel

The role of Yelena Belova will definitely catapult Pugh’s career away from the indie films she is known for. Pugh starred in the anthropological horror film Midsommar, and played Amy March in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. Pugh was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Little Women. 

What do you think? Are you excited for Florence Pugh taking on the Black Widow character? Although we still have some time to see how it all unfolds. Black Widow comes out November 6, 2020. 

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Source: Heroic Hollywood