Chloé Zhao was originally meant to direct ‘Black Widow’
Director Chloé Zhao has revealed that she was originally meant to direct Marvel’s 2021 movie, Black Widow.
During her latest appearance on Puck’s The Town podcast, Zhao rejected the suggestion that Marvel “discovered” her. She explained otherwise. When asked if the studio had approached her first, she confessed laughingly, “No, I called them.”
Zhao went on to direct the 2021 film Eternals for the studio, which unfortunately wasn’t met with critical acclaim. The director confessed that, despite this collaboration, her first conversations with the studio weren’t about Eternals, but about Black Widow.
She elaborated, “It might be a mutual calling. I went in at first for Black Widow, and then there was a scheduling conflict. And then when Nate Moore, my producer for Eternals, showed me the treatment, I went, Oh, wow.”
She added, “I get to have all these immortals, like a Greek play, to discuss humanity. And then I get to create monsters and space gods, right?”
She also admitted that she would jump at the chance to return to Marvel should the possibility arise: “I would, yeah. With the right story, if it chooses me.”
Cate Shortland, director of Lore and Somersault, eventually went on to direct the superhero movie.
Zhao’s next project is Hamnet, an adaptation of the novel by Maggie O’Farrell, which tells the story of William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, grieving the loss of their 11-year-old son.
It features Paul Mescal as the classic Bard and Jessie Buckley as his wife, navigating grief, spirituality and the confines of the mind. Additionally, Joe Alwyn will be starring in the film as Bartholomew, while Hamnet will be played by Jacobi Jupe.
It marks Zhao’s first return to the big screen following the release of Eternals. Her feature film before that, Nomadland, saw Zhao become the second woman ever to win an Oscar for best director.
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