Marvel’s epic two-part conclusion to The Infinity Saga, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, were certainly packed full of shocks and surprises – one of the biggest being the death of Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff, who looked odds on to survive given that a Black Widow solo movie had already been announced.
As we now know, however, the Black Widow film is set to take place prior to the events of Avengers: Endgame, as that movie saw Natasha making the ultimate sacrifice in order to acquire the Soul Stone for our heroes. And now, speaking to Empire, Johansson has revealed how she first heard about the decision to kill of her character in Endgame.
“It was before shooting Infinity War that I was made aware of what was going to happen in Endgame,” said Johansson. “Kevin Feige called me and said, ‘Look, obviously we’re at a place where there’s going to be big sacrifices and big losses’. We had all anticipated that. So it didn’t seem out of character. It kind of made sense to me, I guess, even though I was sad about it.”
Despite her character’s death in Endgame, things have worked out well for Johansson, given that she’s reportedly picking up a record payday for the Black Widow movie, and has hinted that the film could become the first in its own franchise. Now, it’s possible that future Black Widow movies would revolve around Florence Pugh’s character Yelena Belova, but even so with the whole Multiverse now in play, it’s surely unlikely that we’ve seen the last of Johansson in the MCU.
In Marvel Studios’ action-packed spy thriller “Black Widow,” Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.
Black Widow is being directed by Cate Shortland (Lore) and sees Scarlett Johansson reprising her role as Natasha Romanoff alongside Florence Pugh (Fighting With My Family) as Yelena Belova, O-T Fagbenle (The Handmaid’s Tale) as Mason, David Harbour (Stranger Things) as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, Rachel Weisz (The Favourite) as Melina Vostokoff/Iron Maiden, and Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast) and Olivier Richters (The King’s Man) in as-yet-unrevealed roles. It is currently set for release on October 28th in the UK and on November 6th in North America.
