Marvel began meeting with female directors to potentially take on the project, part of a priority push by major film studios to hire female directors for franchises. [91] By the end of April 2018, the studio had met with over 65 directors for the project in an "extremely thorough" search, [92] including Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Chloé Zhao—who went on to direct Marvel's Eternals (2021) [93]— Amma Asante, [91] and Lynn Shelton. [94] Lucrecia Martel was also approached, but was discouraged when she was told that she would not have to "worry about the action scenes". She also felt the music and visual effects of Marvel films were "horrible". [95] In the following months, a shortlist of 49 directors was made before the top choices of Cate Shortland, Asante, and Maggie Betts met with Feige and Johansson in June. [96] Mélanie Laurent and Kimberly Peirce were also in the "next-to-final mix". [8] [97] Johansson was a fan of Shortland's previous female-starring film Lore (2012), [8] and was the one who had approached her about directing the film; [24] :1 Shortland was hired in July, [8] and watched all of Romanoff's MCU appearances in preparation for making the film. [98]

Entering the boxing ring, Romanoff faced Stark who was casually drinking some water out of thirst. He then told Hogan to give her a boxing lesson, for which Hogan didn't take seriously as he was unaware of her past training as a spy. Stark asked Romanoff to spell her last name and ran a search on her. He discovered in her credentials that she was fluent in French, Italian, Russian, and Latin and had done some modeling in Japan.

Not one, but many species exist

While Banner wanted to run away with Romanoff, she knew that she had to stay and fight. After kissing Banner, she pushed him down a hole, causing him to transform into Hulk. Romanoff then held onto Hulk as he jumped from HYDRA Research Base to the airborne Sokovia. The two made their way to Novi Grad and continued to help the rest of the Avengers fight to stop Ultron from levitating the city. [17] Battle of Sokovia [ ] Joining the Fight [ ] A Russian general and the head of the Red Room. [31] :62 [48] [49] :9 Pearson felt the film needed a villain that could fit within its timeframe undetected to avoid contradicting the events of Infinity War. He described Dreykov as a coward who is "puppeteering things" from the shadows and does not care about hurting others. [44] [50]

Cast [ edit ] From left: Feige, Johansson, Harbour, Pugh, Fagbenle, Shortland, and Weisz at the 2019 San Diego Comic-ConThe KGB was not eager to let their operative go and first extorted and then brainwashed her into submission, forcing her to fight the Avengers (which Hawkeye had joined in the meantime). Still, iron-willed as ever, Natasha fought past these violations and truly severed ties with her past.