'Black Widow 2' Is Reportedly In The Works, Scarlett Johansson Might Not Return

Can you believe Scarlett Johansson first made her MCU debut way back in 2010? And she finally got to be the lead in her own film nearly a decade later. Fans have been waiting for a really long time to see her movie Black Widow. If not for the pandemic, we would’ve seen it in theaters last spring. Black Widow is scheduled to release in the United States on May 7, 2021. As for the sequel to the film, We Got This Covered reports that an insider revealed to Giant Freakin Robot that Marvel Studios has plans to move forward with Black Widow 2, but that it won’t star Scarlett Johansson in the lead. Instead, Florence Pugh will take over the lead position as Yelena Belova, Natasha Romanoff’s sister.

The character will be introduced in the upcoming spy thriller. Previously, director Cate Shortland had specifically said that Black Widow will see Natasha Romanoff “handing the baton” to her sister. Yelena may also return as part of General Ross’ Thunderbolts team so we might see her quite often in the Marvel universe. But what does that mean for Scarlett Johansson? We already know (spoiler alert!) that her character was killed off in Avengers: Endgame. The actress has reportedly described Black Widow as providing “closure” for her character, not a new beginning.

Marvel Boss Kevin Feige recently discussed with Deadline whether Black Widow will stick to a theatrical release or go to Disney+. "If I had a crystal ball, I’d look into it and tell you. I don’t. All I can tell you is that for the past three years since Bob Iger brought me into his office and talked about a streaming platform that would become Disney+ and asked us to start working on programs for it. Our long lead plan was to have the MCU and the storytelling woven between weekly episodic big swings on Disney+ and into the feature big swings in theaters."

"It’s my great hope that that continues. Don’t ask me week by week what is going to happen in this world, I have no idea and don’t want to guess. Everything we’ve done at Marvel Studios has been based in 'Ok, if everything goes perfectly, here’s what we’d like to do.' And until this past year, things have gone remarkably well. And it’s my hope that the world gets back on track and we all get back into theaters, and that people will see and experience week by week for the low monthly fee of Disney+ of what we’re bringing there, and then be excited to get together with people again in real life and sit with strangers and share an experience on the big screen," he concluded.