Avengers: Infinity War may be hitting theaters this weekend, but many of us are already looking towards the future of the MCU. While we know films like Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel are currently awaiting release, films like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and the Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel are the few films that have been confirmed for a Phase 4 release. As exciting as all of that sounds, it’s hard to believe that there has been no Black Widow movie. Well, until now that is.

Earlier this year, it was reported that Jac Schaeffer had been tapped to write the screenplay for the Black Widow standalone film. And now it appears that Marvel is looking at a few female directors to helm the film. More on the story below.

THR says Marvel Studios has met with “Deniz Gamze Erguven (the Turkish movie Mustang), Chloe Zhao (The Rider) and Amma Asante (A United Kingdom), among several others.” This is a big moment for the studio who has been falling behind in hiring a female director to helm on of their cinematic installments.

Though the closest they’ve gotten really close by hiring Anna Boden, who is co-directing Captain Marvel with Ryan Fleck. That is not to say that Marvel hasn’t given female creative artists the chance to work. Captain Marvel has six female writers on board including Boden, Meg LeFauve, Nicole Perlman, Liz Flahive, Geneva Robertson-Dworet, and Carly Mensch. And then there’s Rachel Morrison who was the cinematographer for Black Panther.

But this comes after WB hired Patty Jenkins to direct Wonder Woman and Cathy Yan to direct the untitled Harley Quinn/Birds of Prey film, respectively.

While THR says that Marvel Studios’ search is still ongoing, it shows that they are still very much interested in bringing the film to the big screen and not just giving us another stale PR quote.

Variety added to more names to the shortlist. According to their sources, Maggie Betts (Novitiate) and Angela Robinson (Professor Marston and the Wonder Women) are also in the mix.

It is still unclear what the film could be about considering that nearly everyone’s contracts are about to expire. Scarlett Johansson has had ideas on how to make it happen, saying in the past that she would like the character to have a true origins film, so it will be interesting to see if she comes back should the film continue moving forward.

[Source: THR | Variety]