PASSING THE TORCH
THERE’S A VERY real chance that Cate Shortland’s Black Widow might be Scarlett Johansson’s final Marvel Cinematic Universe outing as its title character, the wily super-spy/ one-woman army Natasha Romanoff. Which would be a huge shame. Because, while it’s Johansson’s eighth trip on the MCU merry-go-round since she first appeared in 2010’s Iron Man 2 , it’s Florence Pugh’s first, as Natasha’s fellow former Soviet spy, antagonist and sister-of-sorts Yelena Belova, in a prequel seemingly designed to bestow the Black Widow mantle upon her — now that Natasha herself lies dead, seemingly irrevocably, on an alien planet. And if the easy, funny, sparky chemistry that the American and British actors displayed on a call with Empire earlier this summer translates to the big screen, Marvel should be trying to get them together at every opportunity. Prequels, spin-offs, sitcoms, whatever works. Still, as someone once said, the future is not set, and during Empire’s joint interview, Johansson and Pugh talked about the present, the past and the path that led Marvel to making a female-fronted/directed movie that aims to break new ground…
When was the last time you guys saw each other in the flesh?
Scarlett Johansson: I saw you around Oscars time…
Florence Pugh: But we did reshoots two or three days after that, remember, babe?
Oh, that’s right. We were both sick.
