Deadline is reporting that Ray Winstone (The Departed) has joined the cast of Marvel’s Black Widow. The star joins Scarlett Johansson in the feature. Winstone’s role (like the film itself) is being kept under wraps for now.
Black Widow is a standalone feature that centers on Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff, a spy and assassin who grew up being trained by the KGB before breaking from their grasp and becoming an agent of SHIELD and an Avenger.
Other cast members include O-T Fagbenle (The Handmaid’s Tale), Golden Globe nominee David Harbour (Stranger Things, Hellboy), Florence Pugh (Fighting with My Family), and Oscar winner Rachel Weisz (The Favourite).
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Black Widow is said to be a prequel to the heroine’s first MCU appearance in Iron Man 2. This presumably means that Natasha will be portrayed in a less scrupulous light than bef0re. In other words, viewers might gain insight into her time as a KGB assassin before Nick Fury and Clint Barton recruited her to join S.H.I.E.L.D. If Pugh is indeed playing Natasha’s moral opposite in the movie as was described, this potentially means that her ethical compass is more robust than Johansson’s ruthless killer.
The movie is being directed by Cate Shortland (Lore) from a script by Jac Schaeffer. Plot details are being kept under wraps as the project heads towards a production start in June in London.
Winstone recently played the voice of Tyson in The Queen’s Corgi, and was last seen on screen in King of Thieves. The actor also plays Growltiger in the upcoming Cats film.
(Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)
