Marvel's 'Black Widow' Movie Gets an Art Director

Black Widow is rumored to begin filming at some point in the next few months and according to new reports, the production has hired an art director to begin coming up with a look and feel for the movie. Should early reports prove accurate, Star Wars: Episode IX art director Jim Barr has joined the crew of Black Widow.

Barr has a pretty illustrious career when it comes to his work with the Walt Disney Company. Outside of Episode IX, Barr has also worked on Avengers: Infinity War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Thor: The Dark World for Marvel Studios.

If Barr is, in fact, the art director, he'll join director Cate Shortland (Berlin Syndrome) and screenwriter Jac Schaeffer (Captain Marvel) on the crew. The hiring of Shortland marks the first time Marvel Studios has hired a solo female director to helm one of their movies after the production house hired Anna Boden to co-direct Captain Marvel alongside Ryan Fleck.

Schaeffer, on the other hand, has grown in popularity with Marvel. After receiving a writing credit on Captain Marvel, Schaeffer was tapped to write a script for Black Widow and is now reportedly the showrunner behind the Vision and the Scarlet Witch limited series Marvel Studios is developing for Disney+.

One of the longest-tenured actors in the MCU, Scarlett Johansson is set to reprise her role as Natasha Romanoff. Though Black Widow will be released in a post-Avengers: Endgame world, the flick is reportedly set to be a prequel set around the year 2000. The rumored synopsis for the movie can be found below.

"At birth the Black Widow (aka Natasha Romanova) is given to the KGB, which grooms her to become its ultimate operative. When the U.S.S.R. breaks up, the government tries to kill her as the action movies to present-day New York, where she is a freelance operative. The standalone film will find Romanoff living in the United States 15 years after the fall of the Soviet Union."

Are you looking forward to Black Widow? What other MCU characters would you like to see in the film? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or join the conversation on Twitter by hitting me (@AdamBarnhardt) up to chat all things MCU!

Upcoming Marvel movies set for release this year include Captain Marvel on March 8th, Avengers: Endgame on April 26, and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th.

(h/t HN Entertainment)