Next year’s Black Widow marks Scarlett Johansson’s first time starring in her own solo movie in the MCU and possibly her last appearance in the franchise. After all, what with Natasha Romanoff meeting her fate in Avengers: Endgame, the prequel film surely can’t be followed by a sequel in which the superhero spy is back in action, right? Well, maybe it could.
As we’ve previously reported, the studio is planning on making a Black Widow 2 that’s due to focus on Yelena Belova, another Black Widow played by Florence Pugh. We just met the character in the recent trailer for the film, which established that she and Nat have a sister-like bond. And while initially we heard that there was no space for Johansson in the sequel, we’ve now received another update on the project and it seems as if plans may’ve changed.
Sources close to WGTC – the same ones who revealed that Taskmaster would be the villain in Black Widow way back in March – are telling us this weekend that BW2 might feature Natasha after all via some flashbacks to when she was alive, which would allow Johansson to return to the role. It doesn’t sound like this would just be a cameo, either, but that the film would be split between the two timelines – the past with Nat and the present day following Yelena. The first movie is due to do something similar, by the looks of it, as well, exploring Romanoff’s past while also filling in what happened to her during Civil War and Infinity War.
If this is indeed the route the studio heads down, it’d be a smart way to keep ScarJo involved without breaking canon by bringing Natasha back from the dead. At the same time, it would also allow for Pugh to take on a more central role as Yelena in the present-set bulk of the narrative.
And for further evidence that Johansson isn’t yet done with the franchise, the actress refused to rule out the possibility of returning in a recent talk show appearance. Which indeed seems to indicate that she’ll one day be back as Black Widow. Be it in the all but confirmed sequel or perhaps another project entirely.
