Black Widow (2021)
- To accurately portray their role in Black Widow, Scarlett Johansson spent weeks conducting hands-on research and rehearsing directly with director Cate Shortland.
- Black Widow utilized mostly practical sets and locations to ground the story, a specific choice insisted upon by Cate Shortland.
Black Widow is a 2021 American superhero film directed by Cate Shortland and produced by Marvel Studios, the first standalone film for Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff after a decade of appearances across the MCU. Set between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, the film follows Natasha as she confronts the dark legacy of the Red Room β the Russian program that trained her as a spy and assassin β after reuniting with her surrogate family: Yelena Belova, a fellow Black Widow played by Florence Pugh, Alexei Shostakov, the super-soldier Red Guardian played by David Harbour, and Melina Vostokoff, a scientist played by Rachel Weisz. Together, they must take down General Dreykov, the head of the Red Room who is still running the program and controlling hundreds of Widows worldwide.
Florence Pugh's Yelena was the film's breakout character, bringing a deadpan humor and emotional rawness that established her as a major new presence in the MCU and an heir to Johansson's character. The film's exploration of the Red Room's abuse β forcibly sterilizing its agents and chemically controlling their minds β addressed darker themes than most MCU entries and resonated with broader cultural conversations about exploitation and autonomy. Black Widow earned $379 million worldwide during a simultaneous theatrical and Disney+ Premier Access release, a distribution strategy that led to a public lawsuit between Johansson and Disney over compensation.
