A new report suggests that Marvel Studios has already been meeting with a handful of female directors to helm the Black Widow movie. The news of a possible Black Widow standalone movie first popped up late last year and it seems that the project has been officially green lit, if these reports are to be believed. It's important to note that nothing about the Black Widow movie has been officially confirmed by Marvel Studios, other than the fact that it's in the very early stages of development at this time.

A new report by the Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Jessica Jones director S.J. Clarkson is in talks to direct Star Trek 4, which would make her the first female in franchise history to helm a Star Trek movie. Buried at the bottom of the Star Trek report is a brief mention that Marvel Studios has been talking to female directors about taking on the Black Widow movie. The names mentioned in the report include Deniz Gamze Erguven (the Turkish movie Mustang), Chloe Zhao (The Rider) and Amma Asante (A United Kingdom), among several others. A separate source added Maggie Betts and Angela Robinson.

It would seem that Black Widow is a lot closer to happening than previously thought. Scarlett Johansson has stated before that if the movie happens, that she would like it to happen a lot sooner than later, which Marvel may have taken to heart. The actress has been rumored to be helping Jac Schaeffer pen the script and has said that the movie would more than likely end up as an origin story, or at least that's what she hopes it would be.

The idea of the origin story has started to pick up steam again, but this time because Sebastian Stan has indicated that he would like to be involved in the Black Widow movie. It's been rumored that Stan has been in talks with Marvel about a part in the movie, but as with the mentions of the female directors, nothing has been officially confirmed at this time. However, the idea could make sense since Black Widow had a near-deadly encounter with the Winter Soldier in the past.

Black Widow is being written by a woman and will reportedly be directed by one as well, which is huge for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's also a subject that Robert Downey Jr. brought up at the Infinity War world premiere earlier this week, so the Black Widow movie could be a lot further along than many thought. Regardless, it will still be a while before it hits the big screen. The MCU currently has quite a few movies on tap to finish of phase 3 and then kickoff phase 4. You can check out the original report about Marvel Studios meeting with female directors for the Black Widow movie at The Hollywood Reporter.