Cate Shortland, the director of Black Widow, has explained why the film has to be more serious than other movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
With all the immensely powerful heroes and villains in the MCU, Black Widow could find it hard to stand out, if not for Scarlett Johansson’s beloved performance in the role and the character’s trademark toughness.
For the upcoming Black Widow solo movie, it’s the very fact that she doesn’t have powers that means the film has to be more serious than other MCU projects. The film’s director, Cate Shortland, explained to Total Film (via Games Radar):
“She’s the only character that doesn’t have superpowers. We saw that as a strength, because she always has to dig really deep to get out of shit situations. And we just put her in a lot of hard situations. I thought about women walking to the train station being attacked, and what happens.
“Natasha’s like [Jodie Foster’s Clarice] from The Silence Of The Lambs. It’s great, because when she holds her gun, it shakes. But she’s still really tough inside, and resilient. And I wanted to bring that to the character. So you’re not just watching her fly through situations, knowing she’ll get out of it. You want to see her grit and determination. And that’s what we got.”
SEE ALSO: Disney looking at new Black Widow release date
It sounds like Black Widow will be a grounded and gritty affair with our hero caught in some pretty tough situations. Hopefully, the movie will live up to fan expectations and make the long wait worth it.
In Marvel Studios’ action-packed spy thriller “Black Widow,” Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.
Black Widow is being directed by Cate Shortland (Lore) and sees Scarlett Johansson reprising her role as Natasha Romanoff alongside Florence Pugh (Fighting With My Family) as Yelena Belova, O-T Fagbenle (The Handmaid’s Tale) as Mason, David Harbour (Stranger Things) as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, Rachel Weisz (The Favourite) as Melina Vostokoff/Iron Maiden, and Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast) and Olivier Richters (The King’s Man) in as-yet-unrevealed roles.
