Black Widow Director Teases Heavy Russian Music In Scarlett Johansson Movie

For the first time in nearly two years, Marvel Studios is on its way to releasing the next feature film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Black Widow coming in July. After filming through most of 2019 while the Infinity Saga came to a close, Disney and Marvel are finally ready to bring the solo story of Scarlett Johansson's to the big screen.

The MCU's 24th movie cast and crew have been getting back into the promotion of their project after things were sitting idle for most of the past year through the pandemic. Additionally, interviews with the team are going public and detailing some of the inspiration that went toward the hard work bringing the film to life for Phase 4.

The latest of these teases comes from Black Widow director Cate Shortland, who gave insight into some of what fans will hear in the musical department.

CATE SHORTLAND TALKS BLACK WIDOW SCORE

Marvel

Total Film, via Twitter, spoke with Black Widow director Cate Shortland about the work done by the film's composer, Lorne Balfe.

For Natasha Romanoff's first solo movie, Shortland touched on how Balfe wanted to "earth her" after being somewhat "unearthed in the movies in the past." He described wanting to "give her this flesh and blood" for her latest MCU adventure, creating a score that Shortland lauded as "really Russian:"

“He said ‘I want to earth her, because she’s been unearthed in the movies in the past. I want to give her this flesh and blood.’ And he’s created this soulful score that is really Russian.”

In the same published feature, Florence Pugh, who will be portraying Yelena Belova, took time to praise Shortland's "eye" for the movie as a whole:

"This film wouldn't be what it is without Cate Shortland... I think having her eye, and having her mind with this script, it took it to a whole different realm."

Scarlett Johansson echoed Pugh's thoughts about the Austrailian filmmaker:

"You can feel that [the movie] was made from a female perspective... baked in there."

A FULL RUSSIAN EXTRAVAGANZA

Scottish composer Lorne Balfe has an extensive resume as a film composer, most recently providing the score for movies like Bad Boys For Life; he is also set to score the seventh and eighth entries in the Mission: Impossible franchise. 

It seems only right that the score for Black Widow will hit home with key Russian themes considering the movie will take a deep dive into Natasha Romanoff's Russian backstory. The specifics of those themes are still a mystery, but it's clear that Shortland feels confident that Balfe took this assignment and literally hit all the right notes in his work.

The MCU's scores have seen a drastic increase in quality over the past few years, highlighted by composers like Alan Silvestri for three of the Avengers movies and Michael Giacchino with Doctor Strange, both Spider-Man films and even the new Marvel Studios intro music. With Balfe's past works considered, fans should be in for some special music as Natasha Romanoff and crew tackle their Russian roots.

Black Widow, starring Scarlett Johansson, is set to debut in theaters and on Disney+ on June 9.