Marvel Almost Hired an Oscar Winner to Direct Black Widow
Before Eternals, Oscar winner Chloé Zhao nearly made her Marvel debut with Black Widow. On The Town podcast, she reveals what drew her to Natasha Romanoff—and what made her pass—while promoting her new film Hamnet.
Here is a fun bit of Marvel what-could-have-been: before Chloe Zhao signed on to make Eternals, she was this close to directing Black Widow. Yes, that Black Widow.
How we found out
Zhao was on Matt Belloni's podcast The Town to promote her new film Hamnet, and Belloni asked the obvious question: why jump into superheroes at all? Zhao said her first meeting with Marvel was actually for Black Widow. That door opened, but scheduling slammed it shut. From there, she got pulled toward a different corner of the MCU.
"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. 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?"
"Eternals, at its heart, is a story about a pantheon of gods having discussions about the nature of humanity and whether we are worth surviving. It was my way of trying to process all the questions I was having in those ten years of making the first three films."
So the short version: Zhao first circled Black Widow, a timing snag took her out of the running, and the Eternals pitch clicked for her creatively. Cate Shortland ended up directing Black Widow, and Zhao went all-in on myth-making and allegory.
What drew Zhao to Eternals
This is where the behind-the-scenes stuff gets interesting. Zhao liked the idea of treating superheroes less like quip machines and more like a Greek chorus debating the value of humanity. Plus, she got to build out 'monsters and space gods' from scratch. If you saw Eternals, you can feel that push-pull between cosmic grandeur and philosophical navel-gazing all over it. Say what you will about the movie, it swings big.
A quick refresher on the movie itself
Eternals is about a group of immortal beings who have been quietly protecting Earth for thousands of years. After centuries laying low, they regroup to take on the Deviants and confront a larger cosmic threat. It dropped in November 2021.
- Cast: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, Angelina Jolie
How it landed
Critics were split. Zhao's ambition got plenty of nods, but the movie took heat for its pacing, character work, and the script. On Rotten Tomatoes, it sits at 47%, making it the second-lowest rated MCU entry. Only Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ranks lower at 46%.
Bottom line: Zhao almost made a spy-thriller with Natasha Romanoff, wound up making a cosmic hangout with space deities instead, and we learned it straight from her while she was out talking up Hamnet. Not the path anyone expected, but very on brand for her.