The Russo Brothers might not direct another Marvel movie due to the ongoing Black Widow lawsuit between Disney and Scarlett Johansson.
This news comes by way of a new report from The Wall Street Journal that details the effects of Disney and Johansson's public fallout over the release of Black Widow, as reported by Screenrant.
Due to the lawsuit and how Black Widow was released (and how Johansson was paid as a result), the Russo Brothers and Disney have reportedly "hit an impasse" in negotiations for their Marvel Cinematic Universe return.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Black Widow lawsuit has the directing duo questioning how a new MCU movie from them would be released and how they would be paid for it. No details were revealed about what their MCU return would have been, but the brothers have been quite open in their interest to do a Secret Wars movie.
Who knows if that was the movie the two were in negotiations to direct, but it seems that even if they were, such an MCU return is now off the table.
After the release of Black Widow, Johansson's legal team announced that it was suing Disney over a contract breach for the actress after her solo MCU movie was released day and date on Disney Plus. Johansson's contract reportedly assured her that the movie would be released exclusively in theaters.
The Black Widow actress was reportedly contracted to get paid based on the movie's box office numbers. Theoretically, the box office numbers weren't as high as they could have been due to Black Widow also releasing day-and-date on Disney Plus as a Premiere Access title.
Sources familiar with the lawsuit say the move to streaming cost Johansson more than $50 million.
Since Johansson's legal team announced that it was suing Disney, the fallout between the actress and the MCU's parent company has played out publicly, with Disney stating that it believes Johansson's lawsuit has "no merit whatsoever."
In fact, the public nature of this fallout has reportedly left MCU head Kevin Feige upset and embarrassed over how Disney is treating the beloved MCU actress.
For more, catch up on the Black Widow lawsuit and all of the movement on it since, and then read IGN's breakdown of what it could mean for Hollywood going forward. Check out our thoughts on Johansson's final MCU movie in IGN's Black Widow review after that.
Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.