Australian director Cate Shortland has signed on to direct the upcoming standalone Marvel film, Black Widow.
It is thought Marvel met with 70 directors before picking Shortland, who is best known for her Nazi drama Lore; Black Widow actress Scarlett Johansson also reportedly pushed for Shortland to get the role.
Shortland was on a published shortlist earlier in June, along with Amma Asante and Maggie Betts, while Jac Schaeffer has written the most recent draft.
Set before the first Avengers film, the movie will be Marvels second female-fronted film after Captain Marvel, due in 2019.
Johansson is poised to reprise the role of the Black Widow for the much-anticipated standalone movie, and the 33-year-old has previously spoken enthusiastically about the prospect of Black Widow being handed her own film.
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She said: I think theres room for it. The only way to do it would be if it were something that weve never seen before that was really groundbreaking and incredibly badass.
I think if anyone could make that happen my boss Kevin Feige could. Hes a visionary.
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Scarlett first played the role in 2010s Iron Man 2, and shes confident that the characters tortured past would make for an entertaining standalone film.
The actress – who recently appeared in Avengers: Infinity War – shared: I think it could be something really special. Theres a lot of room there. The character has a tortured past, shes had to make a lot of difficult decisions. She has a lot of trauma. Shes got issues. Theres room to work them all out.
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