Scarlett Johansson wants to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a different role: director.

While the former MCU star has no plans to return to the franchise as Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. the Black Widow, onscreen, she revealed that she is interested in directing a movie in the future.

“I think the movies that I like, that are big action movies, also have the human connectivity piece,” Johansson told Deadline while promoting her directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, at 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 [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.”

Scarlett Johansson in ‘Avengers: Endgame’.Marvel Studios

While Johansson didn’t offer up any more details on the MCU project she’d be down to direct, Entertainment Weekly has some ideas (free of charge — you’re welcome, Marvel!). Since Natasha’s onscreen sister Yelena just became a New Avenger in Thunderbolts* after her debut in Black Widow, anything involving her taking up her late sister’s mantle would be an amazing full-circle moment.

Maybe that’s how we could finally get a Black Widow-Winter Soldier onscreen romance based on their long and complicated history in the comics — with Yelena and Bucky (Sebastian Stan). Or, because we couldn’t get enough of the flashbacks in Black Widow, what about a prequel following a young Nat and Yelena in the ’90s?

Since Natasha also had an onscreen romance teased with absolutely no payoff with the Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), any new project involving him would also make sense. Remember how we found out that Bruce has a teen son, Skaar, in his shocking cameo in the She-Hulk: Attorney at Law finale? Where is our Planet Hulk or World War Hulk movie to explain where that twist came from?

We’d also take anything involving Hawkeye/Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), since he and Nat had such a close bond (to the point where Natasha sacrificed herself to save him). The only issue: Disney would need to pay Renner more money to bring him back after the actor claimed the company only offered him “half” of the pay of season 1 of Hawkeye for a follow-up.

Johansson previously starred in the MCU across eight movies, beginning in 2010’s Iron Man 2 up through 2021’s Black Widow. She played a Red Room-trained assassin who became a double agent for S.H.I.E.L.D. and, ultimately, one of the original Avengers until her onscreen death in Avengers: Endgame (her long-awaited solo movie, Black Widow, took place during the events of 2016’s Captain America: Civil War).

The actor recently revealed that she has no plans to ever return to the MCU on screen.

“It would be very hard for me to understand in what capacity [returning] would make sense for me, for the character that I play,” she said earlier this month. “I miss my buddies and really would love to be with them forever, but what works about the character is that her story is complete. I don’t want to mess with that.”

Johansson previously squashed rumors of a potential MCU return back in March, by saying in no uncertain terms: “Natasha is dead. She is dead. She’s dead. Okay?”

But she knows that, no matter how many times she says it, some fans still hold hope that Black Widow could have survived her onscreen death. “They just don’t want to believe it,” she said. “They’re like, ‘But she could come back!’ Let it go… She saved the world. Let her have her hero moment.”

Meanwhile, her fellow OG Avengers haven’t been able to stay away. Chris Evans made a brief cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine, while both Chris Hemsworth and Robert Downey Jr. are set to appear in the star-studded Avengers: Doomsday (with Downey playing the titular villain, Victor von Doom, instead of his previous MCU character Tony Stark/Iron Man, who also died in Endgame).