Marvel has just taken a huge step forward in bringing a standalone Black Widow movie to the silver screen!

According to Variety, Marvel is finally in the process of moving forward with a standalone movie centered around Black Widow, and they’ve even hired a script writer to start working on the story.

Jac Schaeffer has officially been tasked with penning the script for the film, which would feature Scarlett Johansson reprising her role as the famed Avenger.

Currently, sources say that the project is in the “very early development” stage, meaning that Marvel hasn’t quite given the Black Widow movie the official green light.

Even so, the fact that there’s a script writer attached to the project is definitely cause for excitement.

Black Widow fans have been championing for the femme fatale to get her own solo flick for quite some time — and they’re not the only ones!

Back in 2015 while promoting Avengers: Age of Ultron, Scarlett Johansson revealed in an interview with Collider that she and Marvel President Kevin Feige had spoken about the possibility of a Black Widow standalone movie.

“I think that there’s room for a standalone movie,” said Johansson at the time. “The character has a really rich origin story, [and] I’ve been able to grow with the character. In my ind there’s room for plenty more Black Widow.”

Unfortunately, despite interest from fans and Johansson herself, the possibility of a Black Widow movie has been kept on the back burner for quite some time due largely in part to Marvel’s incredibly full slate.

Later in 2016, Feige himself addressed the possibility of a solo movie in an interview with Deadline.

“We’ve announced the next nine movies, 10 counting Civil War, through the end of 2019. Where we’ll go beyond that are ongoing discussions that we’ll focus on in the next few years because we have a lot to do before then,” said Feige. “Of the characters that you’ve just mentioned I would say certainly that one we’re creatively and emotionally committed to doing is Black Widow.”

Though both Johansson and Feige have given fans reason to hope that they’d eventually get the movie of their dreams someday, for many, it was starting to feel like “someday” would never come.

With that in mind, the fact that the film now has a scriptwriter attached is more than cause for celebration as it’s definitely a step in the right direction!

Now, we’ll all just have to cross our fingers and hope Marvel gives the Black Widow movie an official green light!

What would you love to see in a Black Widow solo movie? Let us know in the comments below!