BLACK WIDOW Director Cate Shortland On The Post-Credits Scene And [SPOILER'S] Cameo

Now that Black Widow is out in theaters and streaming on Disney+ (well, if you're prepared to fork out 30 quid), director Cate Shortland is free to speak about the movie's big moments, and discussed the post-credits scene during an interview with Total Film.

If you haven't seen Black Widow yet, here's you major spoiler warning.

The film ends with Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) setting off to break the rest of the "Secret Avengers" out of prison, but the post-credits scene jumps forward to after the events of Avengers: Endgame, as Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) pays a tearful visit to her sister's grave. There, Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine gives the new Black Widow(?) her latest assignment: Track down and kill the man responsible for Nat's death, Clint Barton.

Though Val's appearance was a surprise to many, Kevin Feige did kind of give the game away when he revealed that Dreyfus was originally supposed to make her MCU debut in Black Widow before the pandemic resulted in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier being released first.

"I spoke with the director of the series [TFATWS's Kari Skogland] and we had a conversation," Shortland says of the character getting a small screen introduction ahead of Black Widow. "But really, when Julia came on set, she's the full package. So she had decided a lot of how she was going to play the character. And it was just about us being there and witnessing and me like wanting her autograph. I've got a crush on her. I think she's great. I remember just being on planes and watching the whole four seasons of Veep and crying with laughter. She's a really beautiful woman."

Although fans who never watched TFATWS might have been left a little confused, the scene did a great job of setting up the Hawkeye Disney+ series and possibly a new team of Thunderbolt-like antiheroes under the Contessa's control.

What did you guys make of Black Widow's post-credits stinger? Let us know in the comments, and check out the latest in a series of posters inspired by the movie below.