Scarlett Johansson eyes move to DC Universe with The Batman Part II role opposite Robert Pattinson

Marvel’s Black Widow is in talks to join the sequel to director Matt Reeves’ 2022 hit film.

Is Scarlett Johansson switching teams?

Scarlett Johansson may be heading from the Marvel Universe to Gotham City. The longtime Black Widow actress is said to be in discussions to join Matt Reeves’ upcoming sequel, The Batman Part II, alongside returning star Robert Pattinson. Filming is expected to begin in the spring.

Johansson played Natasha Romanoff across several Marvel films, including The Avengers (2012) and Black Widow (2021). She has made it clear that her time as the character is over following Romanoff’s death in Avengers: Endgame.

“Natasha is dead. She is dead. She’s dead,” Johansson said earlier this year, responding to fans who continue to hope for her comeback.

Johansson famously resolved a legal battle with Disney, which owns Marvel, in September 2021. The Lost in Translation star had filed a lawsuit against the media giant in July, alleging that the Walt Disney Co. violated her contract when it released Black Widow in theaters and on streaming service Disney+ at the same time. She argued in her lawsuit that her compensation had been tied to how much the film made at the box office and that she’d been assured that the film would be a “theatrical release.”

The Jojo Rabbit star has, however, said she would return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe behind the camera.

“I think the movies that I like, that are big action movies, also have the human connectivity piece,” she said during the Cannes Film Festival. “Even producing Black Widow and being a part of the production of that, and the development of the story, and the story between Natasha and Yelena [Florence Pugh]… [there is,] I think, a way of doing it, a way of maintaining the integrity of the idea of human connection, family, disappointment, all of the things that were themes in [her directorial debut, Eleanor the Great], and doing it in a giant way in a giant universe — there’s ways of doing that… So, yeah, definitely, it could be, it would be fun.”

The Oscar-nominated actress would appear in front of the camera in The Batman sequel.

The Batman Part II director Reeves confirmed in June that he had handed in the finished script, co-written by Mattson Tomlin. The film is scheduled to begin filming in spring 2026, David Zaslav, head of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, revealed in an August earnings call with investors.

With Pattinson set to reprise his role as the Dark Knight, The Batman Part II is scheduled for release on Oct. 1, 2027. Costar Zoë Kravitz, who played Selina Kyle (a.k.a. Catwoman), is not expected to appear in the sequel, according to Variety.

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to DC, Warner Bros., and Johansson.

Meanwhile, Johansson will star in Mike Flanagan’s new Exorcist movie, the director announced last month. Universal and Blumhouse hope to reboot the religious horror franchise again after scrapping a trilogy that was planned around 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer. The as-yet unnamed film will be the franchise’s seventh in just over 50 years and is set to shoot in New York City. Flanagan’s film will tell an all-new story set in The Exorcist universe and is not a sequel, according to a November press release.