Superhero fans are diving into the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie in two years now that Black Widow has hit theaters and Disney Plus Premier Access . …
Superhero fans are diving into the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie in two years now that Black Widow has hit theaters and Disney Plus Premier Access. The film was set to come out in May 2020, but the pandemic forced Disney to delay Natasha Romanoff’s long-awaited solo adventure multiple times. Black Widow sends Avenger-on-the-run Natasha ( Scarlett Johansson) on an espionage-tinged quest as she unravels a conspiracy linked to her past, in the wake of 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. Black Widow was directed by Cate Shortland, whose previous movies include the dramas Somersault and Lore, as well as the 2017 thriller Berlin Syndrome. Black Widow is her first MCU project, and I stayed up late in London to talk to her over Zoom as she started her day in Australia. We steered clear of spoilers, but we touched on the pandemic’s impact on production, the collaborative aspects of Marvel Studios and how a Coen brothers classic influenced Natasha’s first encounter with one of the movie’s villains. Here’s an edited transcript of our Zoom conversation. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie — I didn’t want it to end, which I guess is the highest compliment. Did it change at all due to the delay? Or has it been in the can since 2020? Shortland: It’s been in the can. It took longer to finish because we were in separate houses; we couldn’t be in the same room. And all the digital effects labs started closing because of COVID, so we were shuffling visual effects around to different people. The whole process took longer because of it.
