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MCU Black Widow movie to pass the torch to Florence Pugh, report says

The future of Black Widow will examine the character's comic book origins.

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Shelby Brown
florence-pugh

Florence Pugh in 'Black Widow' (2020)

Marvel Studios

The new Black Widow solo movie starring Scarlett Johansson will kick off Marvel's move into Phase Four of its superhero saga. Johansson might also be hanging up her weapons at the end of the new adventure to make way for a new heroine, according to a Monday report from Empire. 

The film's director, Cate Shortland, told Empire that the movie's cast also includes Florence Pugh, who will star as Yelena Belova, a spy trained in the Red Room as Natasha was in the original comics. Shortland told Empire that MCU fans were expecting an origin story, so they went in the opposite direction. 

"And we didn't know how great Florence Pugh would be. We knew she would be great, but we didn't know how great," Shorland told Empire. "Scarlett is so gracious, like, 'Oh, I'm handing her the baton.' So it's going to propel another female storyline."

Pugh previously played Dani in the 2019 horror film Midsommar and Amy in the 2020 adaptation of Little Women. 

Watch this: Marvel reveals Black Widow teaser trailer