Black Widow director Cate Shortland has promised the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movie will hand the baton from Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff to Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova.

Speaking to Empire magazine, Shortland explained how this is potentially just the start of Pugh's journey. "[Kevin Feige] realised that the audience would expect an origin story so, of course, we went in the opposite direction," she said. "And 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."

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Shortland didn't reveal what she meant by Black Widow propelling Belova into "another female storyline," however, Johansson recently described the movie as part of a standalone franchise.

For those disappointed that Romanoff didn't get a proper sendoff in Avengers: Endgame, Shortland said she's also addressed criticisms there was no funeral for Nat, explaining it will give the character a fitting end.

While Black Widow is being released after the shocking events of Endgame, the movie's setting between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War will expand on Romanoff's mysterious backstory. With a de-aged version of William Hurt's Thaddeus Ross appearing in Black Widow's trailers, it looks like fans could also get to learn more about how Natasha became Black Widow.

There's been plenty of speculation that Pugh could join the MCU full-time as the next Black Widow, which would also marry with rumors that a New Avengers movie is coming. Feige has reiterated there will be no traditional Avengers movie in Phase Four, but that doesn't mean the franchise overseer won't assemble a different team further down the line. The end of Endgame left only Hulk, Thor and Hawkeye as OG Avengers, while even their continued involvement in the team was left up in the air. However, there were recent reports that Spider-Man and Captain Marvel could be the "new" leads of the Avengers and fill in the gaps with some new faces.

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Directed by Cate Shortland, Black Widow stars Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, O-T Fagbenle as Rick Mason and Rachel Weisz. The film arrives in theaters Nov. 6.