'Black Widow' Will Have Multiple Black Widows

Scarlett Johansson will be back as Black Widow in the Black Widow movie – but she's not going to be the only person to use that codename. It sounds like there are in fact multiple Black Widows. According to co-star Rachel Weisz, she and fellow co-star Florence Pugh are also Black Widows. And there are even more we're not aware of yet.

In the comics, Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, was the product of the Black Widow Ops Program:

The Black Widow Ops Program was one of the Department X's espionage training program's, which plays a critical role in Natalia Romanova's life. Based at the Red Room facility, it had been a Cold War program to train the deadliest female spy in the world. It was created due to the success of their previous sleeper agent and assassin the Winter Soldier.

With that in mind, it's important to remember she's not the only Black Widow to have come out of this program. And it looks like the Black Widow movie is going to touch on this. Speaking with IGN, Black Widow actress Rachel Weisz confirmed the presence of multiple Widows:

"There are quite a number...I'm a Black Widow and there's Scarlett [Johansson] and Florence [Pugh]. There's quite a bit of other characters you'll also meet that are Black Widows."

It's still not clear how this will all play out, but Weisz's confirmation of multiple Widows has shed just a tiny bit more insight into the narrative. Previously, very little info about the Black Widow movie was available. We figured it would have to be a prequel, and it was confirmed at Comic-Con that the flick is set after Captain America: Civil War. But there's also a good chance the film will go back even further in time and show the early days of Natasha becoming the Black Widow – something we glimpsed briefly in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Cate Shortland is directing the Black Widow movie, with a script by Jac Schaeffer and Ned Benson. Scarlett Johansson, David Harbour, Florence Pugh, O-T Fagbenle, Ray Winstone and Rachel Weisz star.Black Widow opens May 1, 2020.