Marvel’s highly anticipated Black Widow stand alone movie has found its directer in Cate Shortland.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Australian director Cate Shortland has officially signed on to helm an upcoming Marvel film centered on Avengers fan favorite Black Widow.

Settling on a director is a huge step forward in terms of production for the forthcoming Marvel movie– and it’s clear that settling on Shortland isn’t a decision that was made lightly.

The quest to find the perfect director for the project spanned over half a year. Additionally, the search found the studio meeting with over 70 directors before settling on Shortland, who is best known for helming the Nazi drama Lore.

She’s also got the approval of none other than Scarlett Johansson who is set to reprise her role as the Russian spy turned good guy, Natasha Romanov in the upcoming stand alone.

Shortland will be directing from a script written by Jac Schaffer whose most recent credits include writing the script for an upcoming all-female remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Marvel fans might have been championing for a Black Widow stand alone movie for quite some time, but it wasn’t until 2016 that Kevin Feige confirmed that the studio was indeed interested in pursuing the film.

From there, it was another two years before Marvel brought on Schaffer to pen the script. With that in mind, a six month search for the perfect director almost doesn’t seem like that long at all.

Though Marvel is currently keeping plot details for the film under wraps, it’s rumored that Natasha’s story will take place before the events of the first Avengers movies.

We’ll be keeping our ears open for more exiting details as the film moves further and further into production!