The Black Widow baton is being 'handed over' from Scarlett Johansson to Florence Pugh, according to director Cate Shortland.
In a recent interview with Empire, Shortland explained how the upcoming Marvel prequel will serve as a final farewell to Natasha Romanoff (Johansson), but also pave the way for Pugh's character Yelena to step into the limelight.
"[Kevin Feige] realised that the audience would expect an origin story so, of course, we went in the opposite direction," said the director. "We didn't know how great Florence Pugh would be. We knew she would be great, but we didn't know how great."
Related: Scarlett Johansson says Black Widow movie has a "deeper" message
Shortland added: "Scarlett is so gracious, like, 'Oh, I'm handing her the baton.' So it's going to propel another female storyline."
Shortland went on to explain how Black Widow will feel like a proper goodbye for the character, given that some fans were unhappy with the way she bowed out in Avengers: Endgame.
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"In Endgame, the fans were upset that Natasha did not have a funeral. Whereas Scarlett, when I spoke to her about it, said Natasha wouldn't have wanted a funeral," she said. "She's too private, and anyway, people don't really know who she is.
"So what we did in this film was allow the ending to be the grief the individuals felt, rather than a big public outpouring. I think that's a fitting ending for her."
Black Widow has a November 6, 2020 release date in the US, with the UK getting it a week earlier on October 28.
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