Photo: Canoe
Black Widow is casting a web of females in key positions and we’re so here for it.
After meeting with 70 potential directors, Marvel Studios landed on Cate Shortland to direct the stand-alone Black Widow movie. Shortland, an Australian filmmaker, beat out other shortlist directors Amma Asante (Belle)Â and Maggie Betts (Novitiate) for the position. Marvel Studios also considered Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry) and Melanie Laurent (Galveston) for the job during the search. Although, the studio planned on enlisting a female director from the start, it did, at one point, stop the search for a hot minute to look for a male director.
Although Shortland isn’t as seasoned as some of the other candidates and doesn’t have agency representation, but Black Widow herself (Scarlett Johansson) was a fan of Shortland’s work on Lore, and pushed for her hire. Having a lead that’s excited to work with a director is never a bad thing. Jac Schaeffer, (another lady!) wrote a draft of the movie and has experience writing BAMF female characters, including her upcoming female take on Dirty Rotten Scoundrels called The Hustle.
The movie is reportedly a prequel taking place before The Avengers. We wouldn’t say no to an origin story, but there’s no word on exactly how far back the movie will go.
