Black Widow: Scarlett Johansson has 'handed the baton' to Florence Pugh, director teases

Pugh stars in Marvel film as Yelena, the younger sister of Johansson's character

Black Widow will see Scarlett Johansson ”hand the baton” to Florence Pugh in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, its director has teased.

Ahead of the release of the highly anticipated superhero movie, director Cate Shortland told Empire that while Johansson’s first solo outing as Black Widow could also be her last, she would be leading the way for more female-led superhero films.

“[Kevin Feige] realised that the audience would expect an origin story so, of course, we went in the opposite direction,” Shortland said.

“We didn’t know how great Florence Pugh would be. We knew she would be great, but we didn’t know how great. Scarlett is so gracious, like, ‘Oh, I’m handing her the baton.’ So it’s going to propel another female storyline.”

Pugh stars in Black Widow as Yelena, the younger sister of Johansson's secret agent Natasha Romanov.

The film was originally scheduled to be released on 1 May, but has since been pushed back to 6 November due to the coronavirus pandemic.

While fans have long been calling for her to have her own adventure, Johansson has previously suggested that a Black Widow film could not have existed before now, saying: “This film is happening now as a result of what’s going on in the zeitgeist, and I think it’s pretty cool.”