‘Black Widow’ Director Says The Film Will ‘Hand The Baton’ To Florence Pugh

Black Widow director Cate Shortland says the Scarlett Johansson film will hand the baton to Marvel newcomer Florence Pugh.

Although there’s still a few months to go until Marvel fans finally get to see Black Widow, director Cate Shortland revealed to Empire Magazine more about what to expect from Natasha Romanoff’s solo adventure, revealing that it passes the baton over to Florence Pugh. She explained that since she didn’t get a funeral in Avengers: Endgame, the film also serves as a farewell to the character. Shortland pointed out that the hero wasn’t the type for grand gestures, so a big public funeral wouldn’t have been suitable.

“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.”

The Black Widow director also pointed out that Marvel’s Kevin Feige knew audiences were expecting to go into a stereotypical origin story for Natasha Romanoff which drove the creative team to do the opposite. Cate Shortland went on to praise Florence Pugh in the film as Yelena Belova before explaining that it passes the Black Widow mantle over to her, and that the film will “propel” another storyline.

“[Kevin Feige] realised that the audience would expect an origin story so, of course, we went in the opposite direction. And 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 so gracious, like, ‘Oh, I’m handing her the baton.’ So it’s going to propel another female storyline.”

Do you think Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova should join the Avengers after Black Widow? Where else do you think she should show up? Sound-off in the comments!

Here is the official synopsis for the upcoming Marvel film:

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.

Directed by Cate Shortland from a script written by Eric Pearson based on a story by Jac Schaeffer and Ned Benson, the film stars Scarlett Johansson, David Harbour, Florence Pugh, O-T Fagbenle, Ray Winstone, Olivier Richters, and Rachel Weisz.

Black Widow is set to be released on November 6, 2020. Stay tuned for all the latest news regarding Black Widow and be sure to subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for more video content!

Source: Empire Magazine