Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson will hand over the baton to actor Florence Pugh in the much-anticipated Marvel Studios movie Black Widow.

According to director Cate Shortland, the prequel, set before the events of 2019 tentpole Avengers: Endgame, will drive a new female storyline ahead. "(Kevin Feige, Marvel boss) realised that the audience would expect an origin story so, of course, we went in the opposite direction. And we didn't know how great Florence Pugh would be. We knew she would be great, but we didn't know how great," the director told Empire magazine.