The search saw Marvel meet with over 70 potential directors.

Marvel Studios’ Black Widow stand-alone movie has its director. Cate Shortland, the Australian filmmaker perhaps best known for the Nazi drama Lore, has signed on to helm Black Widow, Marvel’s action-adventure project that will star Scarlett Johansson. The move caps off a search that lasted over half a year as the studio met with over 70 directors in order to find its ideal candidate. A female filmmaker was the priority even as the search stalled at one point and the studio looked at male helmers.

The hunt narrowed in June with Amma Asante (Belle, A United Kingdom) and Maggie Betts (Novitiate) being the finalists alongside Shortland. Melanie Laurent (Galveston) and Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry) were also in the next-to-final mix. Shortland, who does not have agency representation, had a fan in Johansson, who pushed for the helmer. The actress admired Shortland’s handling of the female lead in Lore, a critically acclaimed 2012 drama that tells of a young woman who leads her siblings through Germany as the Allied forces roll in. Shortland's most recent film was Berlin Syndrome, a 2017 thriller that stars Teresa Palmer. Jac Schaeffer wrote the most recent draft for Black Widow. She also wrote the upcoming female-centric remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which was formerly titled Nasty Women and is now called The Hustle.