Marvel’s long-awaited Black Widow movie gets more exciting with each new casting announcement and this is the best one yet. The latest casting news brings The Favourite star Rachel Weisz and Stranger Things breakout David Harbour into the superspy equation. The duo is poised to join Scarlett Johansson and rising star Florence Pugh (Fighting with My Family) in the standalone film.
Weisz is coming off a well-deserved Oscar nomination for her scene-stealing turn in The Favourite and Variety brings the news that she’s in early talks to join the MCU. The report notes that the deal hasn’t officially closed yet, but “talks are heading in that direction, with strong interest from both sides of negotiations.” It’s been a minute since Weisz appeared in action film, but any fan of The Mummyfranchise can tell you she’s got the goods. Plot and character details are being kept tightly under wraps, which means Weisz’s potential role is a mystery at the moment.
Likewise for Harbour, who has signed on for an undisclosed role per The Hollywood Reporter. The Stranger Things star leads his first feature film with Lionsgate’s upcoming Hellboy adaptation, which lands in theaters on April 12. Next up, he’s got Season 3 of Netflix’s hit series Stranger Things dropping on the streaming service in July and recently wrapped on the action thriller Dhaka alongside MCU star Chris Hemsworth.
We may not know what the heck is gonna happen in this movie (its’ reportedly an international spy thriller of some sort), we do know the script comes from Jac Schaeffer, who previously wrote the charming sci-fi indie TiMER and is also set to write and showrun Marvel’s Vision and Scarlett Witch series for Disney+. Cate Shortland is directing, and the filmmaker certainly knows her way around a dramatic thriller, having previously helmed the Nazi drama Lore and the severely underseen romantic thriller Berlin Syndrome.
Per THR’s report, Black Widow is heading towards a June start of production in London, so expect more casting reports in the coming weeks since filming is just around the corner. It’s hard to imagine a more appealing cast than the one they’ve already started putting together — Marvel’s casting department is ever a wonder — so I’m excited to see who else they bring on board.
