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What Should We Expect from Black Widow Directed by Cate Shortland?

Black Widow died in The Avengers 4, and there was a rumour that she is going to get a solo movie and that this movie is going to be directed by Cate Shortland. By this time, we have already seen the trailer for the movie, and it is set for release in May 2020. But because of the pandemic, the release was postponed for November 2020.

What can we expect from this movie? And who is Cate Shortland?

Movie Plot

The movie is part of the fourth phase of the MCU. Black Widow is a solo film that focuses on the early beginnings of Natasha Romanova, a KGB operative. Here, we are going to see how she was groomed to be an assassin. The movie is about an assassination plot on her when the USSR broke up. It shows us how she got away from it and how she started working as a freelance operative.

The movie setting is sometime after Captain America: Civil War. In the movie plot, Black Widow is on the run, and she has to face her dark past. For now, that is all we know about the plot. If we look at the trailer, Black Widow specifically said that this happened before she was an Avenger—that she made mistakes and made enemies.

We know that the main rival here is the Task Master. In it, she will be working with the Red Guardian portrayed by David Harbour. She is also going to team with two other Black Widows—Melina and Yelena, portrayed by Rachel Weisz and Florence Pugh, respectively.

What Should We Expect from Black Widow Directed by Cate Shortland?

Movie Origins

The Black Widow movie was planned as early as 2004. What took the movie so long to make was that Marvel was looking for the perfect director. The studio met with over 70 directors before finally setting for Cate Shortland.

At that time, Lionsgate was the studio that acquires the rights to make the film. It was announced that David Hayter would write and direct it, but Lionsgate dropped it  in 2006. The rights to the film went back to Marvel Studios. It was at this time that Marvel started looking for people to finance the project, but Hayter did not feel comfortable doing it anymore. As such, the plan was scrapped for the moment.

Back in 2009, there were talks that Emily Blunt would play the Black Widow in the second movie of iron Man—the same movie where Scarlett first appeared for the role. However, Emily Blunt was unable to take the role as she was busy with another one—Gulliver’s Travels, with Jack Black.

It was on the same year that Scarlett signed up for the role. The movie deal included her appearance in several films that were planned ahead. It was a year later when Scarlett had talks with Kevin Feige about a standalone film, but the studio’s focus at this time was the culmination of the Avengers series.

It was at this point when several adjustments were made to her contract. The people in the studio did not really anticipate that moviegoers and fans would have such affinity to the Black Widow character. At that time, Black Widow was just an on-demand character, which means that she can be let go if the studio deemed it right to do so.

Who Is Cate Shortland?

Cate Shortland is an Australian movie director. She is also a writer. While Cate is an award-winning director, she is not globally renowned. Her films include Somersault and the Berlin Syndrome. She also directed the film Lore, which was premiered in 2012. This film won her the Bronze Horse award in the Stockholm International Film Festival.

So far, she has only directed three movies, and Black Widow is her fourth. She has directed six TV series and three short films. Cate was born in 1968, and she is a graduate of film making from the Australian Film, Television, and Radio School. Even as a student, she received the Southern Star Award as a most promising student.

How Did Cate Get the Director Role?

In 2016, there were talks that Josh Whedon would take over the Black Widow movie. It was also during this period that Scarlett said that she would participate only in the best movie. She said that she would only do it if it is a standalone film with its own story.

It was because of this that the Marvel studio executives decided that the best time to release the standalone film was in the fourth phase of the MCU.

By 2017, Kevin Feige and Scarlett had a discussion about moving forward with the film. It was at this time that Schaeffer was hired as the scriptwriter. The studio started the search for a female director. It is part of the Marvel studio’s corporate plan to push for female directors.

The search took a while, but the process was said to be thorough. Shortland was hired because of Scarlett, as Scarlett was a fan of the movie Lore. Cate was hired in March of 2018.

The Film Production

It was in February of 2019 when Ned Benson was hired to re-write the script. Feige wanted the film to have a non-R rating.

Principal photography started in May 2019 in Norway. By June, the team moved to shoot in studios in London, and then the film was announced in July of the same year. It was also announced that Iron Man would appear in the film.

Post-production started in January of 2020, and the studio was looking forward to a release date of March 2020. However, the pandemic put a halt to this release and later announced that the targeted release is in November of 2020. This may still change, and we would have to wait until the quarantine cases finally come to a negligible drop.

What Can We Expect from the Film?

What Should We Expect from Black Widow Directed by Cate Shortland?

The main villain in the movie is Task Master. Task Master is a person named Tony Master. He has what we call photographic reflexes. It is like a photographic memory, but it is about movement. What this means is that he can accurately reproduce the action of any person he sees. He can counter your own moves because he knows what you are about to do.

Task Master is a mercenary, and he works for anyone who can pay him well regardless of who they are or what they want to do. In the comics, he has even done work for SHIELD and the military, specifically, General Ross, who will also be in the movie.

Since Natasha already died in The Avengers movie, we know that this is a prequel. She said in an interview with Stephen Colbert that the movie takes place after the Civil war but before the Avengers Infinity War.

It is possible that General Ross is hunting Natasha after she went against Iron Man in the Sokovia Accords brouhaha. At that time, Black Widow took the side of Captain America, and she was flip-flopping between the side of Iron Man and Captain America—letting go of Bucky in the end, thus betraying Iron Man and the American Government.

From previous movies, we know that Agent Barton was sent to kill Natasha, but Agent Barton, or Hawk Eye, made a different call.

Is it possible that this is where they show how Hawk Eye and Natasha met? In the movie trailer, we can see a masked person using a bow to attack black widow.

Could this be Hawk Eye?  Or could it be Task Master who has seen the move of Hawk Eye and decided to copy his moves? Is this pretty much conclusive that Hawk Eye is really in the movie, and they are just not telling people about it?

Here are some thoughts:

  • If you think about it, Hawk Eye couldn’t be the bad guy. Why? Because he was a good guy in Captain America: Civil War—and he was being monitored by the government during the Infinity War.
  • This simply cannot happen since he was already a hero during the Civil War. Therefore, we can be sure that Task Master is not Hawk Eye, and that he couldn’t be any of the bad guys in the Black Widow movie.
  • And if we watch the movie closely, we can theorize that Task Master is not he but she.
  • Our suspicion is that the two other Black Widows could be the Task Master—it could be Melina or Yelena. Of course, there has to be some sort of betrayal in the movie to make it bittersweet, right?

Also, in the comics, Melina left the Black Widow family and became the Iron Maiden—a villain how was bitter because Natasha was better than her in every aspect of being an assassin.

Overall, we can expect this movie to be a spy thriller, and that it is going to be full of plot twists and surprises. We know that Marvel is good at this, and we know that the studio will really deliver a great movie with no magic and superhero stuff.

For now, we’ll just play free online slots no download as we stay at home. Hopefully, the movie still gets released this year.


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