Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow brings Red Sparrow’s production designer onboard. Marvel Studios finally started to put their money where their mouth is earlier this year when they began to move forward with a solo movie for Johansson. She’s been part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2010 and fans have been asking for a spinoff ever since. After years of saying a movie could happen, they hired Jac Schaeffer to write the script for Black Widow in January.

The hiring of Schaffer led to further details surfacing, including Johansson lining up a massive pay increase as the star. Even though Johansson is firmly involved, there is so far no director attached. The lack of a director isn’t slowing down the pre-production process though as Black Widow looks to have found its first crew member.

Omega Underground reports Marvel has hired Maria Djurkovic to be the production designer on Black Widow. The hiring looks to be a perfect fit considering Djurkovic’s last credit was Red Sparrow, a movie that generated several comparisons to what a potential Black Widow movie could be. Djurkovic is very familiar with spy/thriller movies that are also period pieces after also working on Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy and The Imitation Game.

The hiring of a production designer at this stage indicates that the movie could be on track to start filming sometime in 2019. Marvel Studios already has lined up Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 to film at the start of the year, so if both projects film in Pinewood Atlanta, then a summer start looks likely for Johansson’s solo movie. This also lines up with early reports that the movie was targeting a 2020 release. It could very well be the movie Marvel sticks on their previously announced August 2020 release date.

Now that the crew is starting to be assembled, it shouldn’t be too much longer before the biggest domino falls and Black Widow hires a director. Marvel’s been thorough to say the least in their search after meeting with over 65 directors. A major focus for Marvel is looking to hire their first solo female director, after Anna Boden received co-directing credit on Captain Marvel with her longtime working partner Ryan Fleck. Marvel could wait to hire the rest of the film’s crew around Djurkovic until after they name a director, but that could just depend on how long the search continues on. Either way, this is another step forward for Black Widow and surely not the last.

MORE: Black Widow May Be a Prequel Featuring Winter Soldier

Black Widow is in development but does not have a release date.

Source: Omega Underground

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