From her breakout role as Charlotte in director Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation to her reprisal of Ash in Sing 2, Scarlett Johansson has been the talk of Hollywood for over two decades. In her career, few roles stand out more than Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With 12 appearances across the MCU, Johansson's career as a change-maker in Hollywood is beginning to take off in big ways; whatever she does next is sure to be magnificent.
Johansson isn't one to shy away from speaking her mind. After her many appearances as Black Widow, only one appearance was in a single stand-alone film, which resulted in a very public lawsuit. After several months, Johansson and Disney settled the lawsuit. While she may not return to the screen as Black Widow for Marvel Studios, she will be returning as a producer in an unnamed MCU project, according to Variety.
In an interview w/ Fatherly, Johansson revealed: “I have no plans to return as Natasha. I feel really satisfied with this film. It feels like a great way to go out for this chapter of my Marvel identity. I would love to be able to continue to collaborate with Marvel in other ways because I think there’s just an incredible wealth of stories there. Re-imagining this genre is something that I find very interesting. I think there’s a lot of opportunities to tell these stories in different ways than audiences have come to expect.”
While reprising her role as Black Widow, even in an alternate universe as we saw of the character in the What If…? series, would be quite interesting, the story of Natasha Romanoff is complete. After Black Widow met her end in Avengers: Endgame, several questions about her past were answered in Black Widow. As much as fans may want Johansson to reprise her role as the beloved original Avenger, other stories are waiting to be told. One of the connections Black Widow has with the Winter Soldier is that Natasha Romanoff isn't the only Black Widow, but is part of a conglomeration, like Bucky is to the Winter Soldier. At the end of Black Widow, Natasha set the remaining Black Widows on their journey to freedom. Some Widows, namely Yelena, set out on a mission to undo the brainwashing they all endured, effectively establishing Florence Pugh as the MCU's new Black Widow. -Variety