Black Widow’s standalone feature in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a long time coming for fans. On the red carpet for Jojo Rabbit, series star Scarlett Johansson told fans that some closure is coming with this next film. People are still discussing her death in Avengers: Endgame and the decision to have her character be the one to sacrifice herself for that Infinity Stone. So, by function of that prickly situation, Black Widow takes place between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. That sort of would-be prequel treatment still has plenty of fans raising their eyebrows about the entire exercise because no matter how fun this adventure is, we all know how it is going to end for Natasha Romanoff.

But, all this talk of closure has people wondering if it could really all be some sort of fakeout or trickeration by Marvel Studios. After all, there are a ton of pockets between all these team-up movies. Not to mention the five-year timeskip between Infinity War and Endgame. You can fit a lot of story into those gaps, and Black Widow is aiming to do just that in this instance. Who knows, there could be room for even more adventures if the movie does the numbers that some think it could. Until then, these EW quotes do a lot to encourage optimism.

“Closure. I mean, I hope so. I don’t know if I can take it anymore without closure. I mean, its too exhausting. I love it, I’m so proud of what we made. Now, we get to sprinkle the magic all over it.”

This all comes on the heels of Johansson speaking at a Hollywood event for Elle where she referred to the movie as a franchise. Black Widow is being billed as a singular effort, but could it be more? That two year time period between Civil War and Infinity War is a lot of ground to cover. For now, the series star is just enjoying being an executive producer on the film.

"I feel like I'm in control of the destiny of this film, which gives me a lot more peace of mind," Johansson said earlier this year. "I know her better than anybody. What was her childhood like? What is her relationship to figures of authority? This character is gritty and multi-dimensional but has a lot of trauma and has led an unexamined life. In order to operate at this elite level, she has probably had to push away a lot of stuff."

Black Widow hits the big screen on May 1st, 2020.