Black Widow is not going to be a passing of the torch movie. Initial rumors surrounding the project stated that Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova was going to be taking over the Black Widow moniker. The movie takes things back in time to right after the events of Captain America: Civil War and before Infinity War. As all Marvel Cinematic Universe fans know, Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff is not alive in the current timeline due to her sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame.

In a new interview, Florence Pugh was asked about the Black Widow movie. Yelena Belova is another Black Widow, but that doesn't mean she's going to take over for Natasha Romanoff in the MCU. Pugh was specifically asked if the highly anticipated movie contains a passing of the torch moment. She explains.

"No, I actually will say when we were making it, it wasn't anything like that at all. And I am saying it very honestly, it certainly didn't feel like a passing of the torch kind of film when we were making it. And I think the direction and the feeling and the vibe behind it was genuinely just trying to make this complicated and painful story. And do it justice because a lot of fans have been waiting for her film. And also a lot of people I think will appreciate this story."

While Yelena Belova won't be taking over for Natasha Romanoff, she could still very well have a future within the MCU. Obviously, we've only seen the first trailer and still have a lot of questions about Black Widow. However, the movie is going to answer those questions and fill in the blanks for not only Romanoff's story, but Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame too. There's a lot of potential in the story and there's a lot of ways it could go.

Though Florence Pugh says Black Widow will not be a passing of the torch movie, the actress could be throwing out a pretty good misdirect. It may not be a traditional successor story, but it could still have those elements, just in a more ambiguous way. Or, Pugh is really being open and honest here. We're really just going to have to wait and see since we all know how well Marvel Studios guards their secrets.

Black Widow is all set to hit theaters on May 1st, 2020, making it the first installment in the MCU's Phase 4. There's a lot of story to unpack and MCU fans have been waiting years to see Scarlett Johansson headline her own movie as Natasha Romanoff. It's going to be interesting to see how the movie is received upon its release since the hopes are so high after waiting so many years. Regardless, it looks like it's going to have some pretty intense action scenes. The interview with Florence Pugh was originally conducted by Uproxx.