YAAAAAAAA I mean. *ahem* Black Widow says: “About damn time.”

After seeding the rumor (with a healthy wiggle word) a week ago, Marvel is talking a whole lot about developing a solo Black Widow film that will continue a strong arc for the character as will be set up in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Marvel Entertainment president Kevin Feige spoke to Variety about how tentative plans for the film to grow out of Marvel Cinematic Universe events that will begin in the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and mentioned that Black Widow’s role in Age of Ultron, as it has been shaping up in development, is one that is ripe for exploring in a solo film.

Widow’s part in [Age of Ultron] is very big. We learn more about her past and learn more about where she came from and how she became in that film. The notion of exploring that even further in her own film would be great, and we have some development work with that. When we meet the Avengers at the top of ‘Age of Ultron,’ it’s a very different landscape than we left them at the end of the first film. Partially, that’s because we love the rhythm that the comicbooks have developed — each of the characters appear in their runs, occasionally they get together for a big event or crossover series, they part again, and then they come back together again.

Variety noted that Chris Evans, Johansson’s co-star in Winter Soldier, has also been quoted confirming the character’s significant role in that film.

At this point, there is no confirmed news about writers or directors attached to the project, but for my part, I hope that Marvel takes this opportunity to hire their first female director for a movie in the current MCU. This would be the fifth confirmed Marvel film for Scarlett Johansson, who began appearing as Black Widow in Iron Man 2. Feige also did not speak to whether the Black Widow film would be a part of Marvel’s Phase 3, films that take place after Age of Ultron up through The Avengers 3, but given how he’s talking about the plotline for the movie growing organically from Winter Soldier and Age of Ultron, I’d say it seems to be implied. That would give Marvel’s a Phase 3 that currently consists of Ant-Man, a developing Doctor Strange film, a third Captain America film, a third Avengers film, and our first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie featuring a female character in the lead, a Black Widow film.

(via Variety.)

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