The director behind Marvel's Black Widow, Cate Shortland, has teased further adventures for the central family of assassins, and perhaps even a sequel. While her answer is brief, Shortland did not deny the possibility of a follow-up, believing that the likes of Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff and Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova have a lot more kicking ass and taking names left to do.

"I think these girls have got a lot of asses still to kick."

Directed by Cate Shortland from a screenplay by Eric Pearson, Black Widow takes audiences back in time and picks up following the events of 2016's Captain America: Civil War. Natasha Romanoff finds herself on the run and forced to confront a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past. As she is pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Romanoff must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.

While it is fully expected that the events of Black Widow will lead to Florence Pugh showing up again in the MCU, there is a big roadblock where Scarlett Johansson is concerned, namely that her character is currently dead. Meeting her end during the dramatic events of 2019's Avengers: Endgame, it is currently unknown whether Black Widow will somehow allow Natasha to return, but perhaps Shortland has plans to make more prequels instead?

Shortland did offer further clues regarding her hopes to bring Johansson back. The filmmaker provided some insight into her approach to the characterization of Natasha for Black Widow; describing her as "infinite" she said, "That she was part of the ether, that she was infinite. What I used was light. So, I show fireflies at the beginning of the film, and they reoccur at the end of the film, and for me, it's this idea that everything that's meant to happen has happened and that she's infinite."

Whether Natasha Romanoff ever returns following Black Widow remains to be seen, but it is likely that the movie itself will start a new Marvel trend, with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige recently revealing that there could be more prequels going forward. "Certainly this film and this story is a particular case for Natasha," Feige said. "But the notion of exploring the past, present, and future of the MCU is certainly in the cards for all of our characters. This particular story of this particular cast is very personal, very specific to Natasha."

Black Widow was delayed multiple times amid the ongoing global situation, and is now scheduled to be released in the United States on July 9th, 2021, simultaneously in theaters and through Disney+ with Premier Access. It will be the first installment in Marvel's Phase Four of the MCU. The Marvel movie has been met with positive reviews from critics. However, Blade star, Stephen Dorff, has now offered his two cents, describing Black Widow as "garbage" and "like a bad video game" before stating that he is "embarrassed for those people. I'm embarrassed for Scarlett!" No doubt the Oscar nominated actress is mortified. This comes to us courtesy of Deadline.