After years of talking about the idea, Marvel has seemingly been no nearer to making an actual stand-alone Black Widow film starring Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff. Now there actually is some forward motion, as writer Jac Schaeffer has been hired to work on the script.
Bear in mind that this is not an official plan to put the film into production, but it's certainly a positive step forward for a film that has been mooted as far back as the character's first appearance in Iron Man 2. According to Variety, Marvel studio boss Kevin Feige met various candidates and decided that Schaeffer was the best person for the job, with Johansson having input into the search.
Schaeffer wrote and directed the delightful sci-fi indie movie Timer in 2009, and has more recently been winning praise for alien invasion comedy The Shower, which is still in development. Anne Hathaway hopped aboard that planned movie, and enjoyed Schaffer's work so much that she had her write Dirty Rotten Scoundrels remake Nasty Women, which will be out this year. Schaffer also worked on the script for Olaf's Frozen Adventure.
As for when we can expect to see the Black Widow movie itself? That's only known to the Marvel team for now, but at least the thing is actually taking shape at last. The character will return in Avengers: Infinity War, out 27 April.