Scarlett Johansson readies for battle the way a veteran doctor scrubs in for surgery or an astronaut gears up for her eighth space flight. Hair drawn back in a tidy braid, she barely glances down at Natasha Romanoff’s familiar black catsuit as she buckles every buckle and zips every zipper with rhythmic efficiency. Squeezed into a closet-size armory on a Manhattan Beach soundstage, Johansson’s assassin-turned-Avenger is surrounded by all the guns, knives, and glossy wigs a superspy could ever need. She moves like she’s been doing this for a decade — because she has.
But this is something new: There’s no Captain America or Hawkeye to assist her, no S.H.I.E.L.D. backup waiting out of sight. This is Black Widow’s long-awaited solo movie, set in the turmoil between the all-star superhero team’s breakup in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War and their reunion in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War.
The mission she’s prepping for is personal, as the former Russian agent is going up against opponents from her past. When a fellow Widow, Rachel Weisz’s Melina, wonders how they’ll tackle one particularly formidable foe, Natasha replies, “Just get me close to him.” It’s not an arrogant quip or a self-congratulatory boast, just a matter-of-fact threat from a spy who is very, very good at her job.
Then, just as Johansson pulls on her last glove with a satisfying snap…darkness. The studio has lost power; in the dark, someone calls out for flashlights. After a quick investigation, the production crew discovers the blackout is not the work of a diabolical supervillain but a blown transformer nearby. Natasha’s mission will have to wait a little while longer — but that’s all right. Black Widow knows how to wait.
When Johansson made her debut as Black Widow in 2010’s Iron Man 2, the then-nascent Marvel Cinematic Universe was more like a small galaxy. Today, it stands as the most profitable film franchise of all time, a sprawling, 20-plus-film juggernaut that’s demolished box office records and turned obscure comic characters into marquee names. Among them is Romanoff, the scarlet-haired superspy without superpowers. Johansson’s portrayal became an immediate fan favorite, thanks to her sarcasm and general penchant for ass-kicking, plus her dramatic evolution — she goes from playing Tony Stark’s undercover personal assistant to Avengers founding member to savior of the universe.
Johansson — a recent double Oscar nominee for Jojo Rabbit and Marriage Story — says she and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige first discussed a potential solo film during the press tour for 2012’s The Avengers, as just “a tiny speck of an idea.” As fellow Avengers like Thor and Captain America got stand-alone sequels and threequels, Natasha continued to evolve within the main MCU story line until her death in Endgame, a noble finale for a character who dedicated her hero career to trying to right past wrongs.
“We had been planning the conclusion for the Infinity Saga for the past five or six years, and Natasha’s journey within those films took the priority,” Feige explains. “The notion of breaking out for a stand-alone film that takes place in the past, for a character that we already knew and were already following, didn’t feel right.”
Even as journalists and fans repeatedly asked Johansson when Black Widow would be going solo, the actress was privately unsure whether that was something she even wanted. “I was like, I think I’m good,” Johansson admits. “If we [were] going to do this, it had to be creatively fulfilling. I’ve been working for such a long time, and I have to feel like I’m challenged. I don’t want to do the same thing that I’d already done before.”
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