Black Widow Solo Movie Eyeing Emma Watson for Co-lead

Kevin Feige and his Marvel team would like to keep any big announcements about Phase 4 of the MCU to themselves until after the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home this summer, but if they want to get a movie or two out in 2020, it’s going to be near-impossible to keep all their cards close to their chests until then.

Case in point, the proposed Black Widow solo movie looks like it’s starting to round up a cast of choice applicants for roles to surround Scarlett Johansson in her first standalone spy adventure as former Russian assassin, Natasha Romanoff, aka Natalie Rushman, Laura Matthers, Mary Farrell, Natalia Alianovna Romanova, Oktober, Yelena Belova, etc. The gal’s had a lot of aliases!

The fairly reliable That Hashtag Show has some exclusive details on the casting situation so far, and it appears that Harry Potter and Beauty and the Beast star Emma Watson is the premium option for co-lead, a “kick-ass female Bond” with no character name available at present. The site claims Watson is reportedly the frontrunner for the role, but Alice Englert (Beautiful Creatures), Dar Zuzovsky (Hostages), and Florence Pugh (Fighting With My Family) are all contenders, too.

Additionally, Moonlight breakout Andre Holland has been noted to have auditioned to be the villain of the piece, as pre-production gets underway on Black Widow (let’s call it that for now). Rachel Weisz, Sebastian Koch, and Alec Baldwin are all said to be potential choices for supporting roles. There are further character breakdowns here, if you want to get into more spoilery territory.

Emma Watson has Little Women coming out later this year, directed by Lady Bird‘s Greta Gerwig. She stars alongside the aforementioned Florence Pugh. Pugh is having a huge year, with Fighting with My Family already having been well received, and Ari Aster’s Scandi-horror flick Midsommar on the horizon, too.

More on the Black Widow movie as it arrives.