Is it hot in here, or is that just the suddenly very intriguing cast of Black Widow on our minds? The standalone Marvel movie starring Scarlett Johansson is on the verge of adding David Harbour (Hellboy, Stranger Things) and the Oscar-winning Rachel Weisz to its cast.
The Hollywood Reporter got the scoop on Harbour, while Variety posted about Weisz just a few minutes later.
Unfortunately this major casting news (Harbour is “confirmed” while Weisz is said to be “circling” with “strong interest”) imparted zilch on who Harbour and Weisz might be playing when they join the MCU.
That’s not terribly surprising, considering the movie’s story is still pretty vague (Is it a prequel? A sequel? Both?); as THR reminds us with this useless description, “it will be an internationally-set story centering on Natasha Romanoff, a spy and assassin who grew up being trained by the KGB before breaking from their grasp and becoming an agent of SHIELD and Avenger.”
Other details we know at this point for Black Widow, which is set to begin filming in June: Johansson, who’s played the character since 2010’s Iron Man 2, will obviously play the title role; Australian filmmaker Cate Shortland is directing; and Florence Pugh (soon to be seen in Ari Aster’s Midsommar) will play a rival spy of some kind.
No release date has been announced yet of course, but Marvel’s next release is the long-awaited Avengers: Endgame, hitting theatres on April 24.