A Jewish Woman Will Direct ‘Black Widow’ Standalone Movie
Cate Shortland and ‘Black Widow’ star Scarlett Johansson Image by GETTY IMAGES/FORWARD MONTAGE
Australian director Cate Shortland will direct Marvel’s standalone “Black Widow” movie, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed. Shortland is a decorated director known for films like “Lore,” a 2012 drama about the lives of the children of Nazis immediately following the Holocaust. She will direct Scarlett Johansson in a movie focused on her character the Black Widow, alias Natalia Alianovna Romanova. The Widow has appeared in six Marvel movies, but has never anchored her own film.
The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Marvel met with seventy different directors to find the perfect match for “Black Widow,” and that Shortland was championed by Johansson. The studio explicitly sought a female director. Don’t let your feminist glee distract you from your cynicism quite yet, though — the studio, which will also release the Brie Larson-anchored “Captain Marvel” in March 2019, is clearly playing catch up after the major box office success DC had with “Wonder Woman.”
Shortland is not only the first woman to solo direct a movie for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She is also the first Jewish woman — she converted to Judaism when she married Tony Krawitz, a fellow filmmaker. She’s spoken about how “support from within the Jewish community” got her through the making of “Lore.”
Jewish women can do anything.
Jenny Singer is the deputy lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
