"Black Widow" Solo Movie

"Avengers" director Joss Whedon is keen to return to the Marvel Studios fold, to direct a "Black Widow" solo feature, starring actress Scarlett Johansson, reprising her role as Russian female spy 'Natasha Romanoff':

"I think that character really is very interesting and very earthbound," said Whedon, "so it’s the kind of action that I got to do less of with somebody like 'Thor' or 'The Vision'.

"When you get into your ‘Superman’ territory it’s harder to maintain the gritty action that the Russo brothers do so brilliantly and she’s got that kind of thing...

"...do a good, paranoid, ‘John le Carré on crack’ sort of thing. That would be really fun."

"Scarlett Johansson is just delightful. She works really hard...spends most of her time cracking me up, so it would be a fun shoot."

Johansson's Black Widow currently appears on screen in Marvel Studios' "Captain America: Civil War" directed by Anthony and Joseph Russo.

In 2009, Johansson signed on to play 'Natasha Romanoff'/'Black Widow' in multiple films, beginning with 2010's "Iron Man 2." In that introductory role, she is an undercover spy for 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' posing as an assistant to 'Tony Stark'.

" Right now I think this character is used well in this part of the universe," said Johansson, "but I think that Kevin—I mean, we’ve talked about it and we both share similar vision for what could be a standalone series.

"I think that there’s room for a standalone movie. The character has a really rich origin story and I’ve been really fortunate to kind of place all these layers on top of one another...

"...and kind of build up this character to this point where I think I can now start to peel them away and reveal different sides of her and really focus on...

"...I think I’ve been able to grow with the character, the character’s been able to grow with me.""

It’s been a very good relationship back and forth and I think Marvel—the one thing about working with them is they don’t want anybody to work on the movie that doesn’t want to be there, obviously.

"So whatever you’re contracted to should not feel like golden handcuffs, and they don’t want that either…"

"I will certainly be around and that’s because it’s been such a great response. I mean, I’m always happy to put the cat suit back on, for sure."

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