Scarlett Johansson is preparing to star in a standalone Black Widow film for Marvel Studios.
The actress has portrayed the superhero vixen in six films for the comics company in the Captain America and Avengers franchises, and Variety reports movie bosses are now seriously considering moving forward on a spinoff with her character as the lead.
Sources tell the outlet Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has tapped Jac Schaeffer to write the script after interviewing several screenwriters, with Scarlett also participating in talks surrounding the selection of the writer.
Emerging scriptwriter Schaeffer is quickly becoming a sought after figure in Hollywood after penning the Black List script for The Shower, a sci-fi comedy about an alien invasion that takes place during a baby shower with Anne Hathaway as the leading lady. Academy Award-winner Hathaway has also worked with Schaeffer on forthcoming release Nasty Women, a revamped female-driven take on Steve Martin and Michael Caine’s 1988 comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Meanwhile, Scarlett has expressed her interest in taking on a Black Widow franchise in the past, telling Collider in 2015 “there’s room for a standalone movie” in the Marvel universe, and maybe even more films led by the character.
“She’s got a really rich origins story,” she previously told Variety. “There’s a lot of places you can go.”
“(A prequel is) a possibility,” she added. “There’s plenty of backstory. Or not. It could be something else. I think it would just have to be very much like its own specific thing. It would have to have its own specific vibe. It would have to be totally different than any of the other standalone films.”
Scarlett next depicts Black Widow in Avengers: Infinity War, which reaches theaters in May (18).
