Black Widow Will Be Blunt?

Two Marvel stories in a row! "Iron Man 2" casting news is heating up and while Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell are shoring up their perspective contracts to play villains in the sequel to the box office and critical success Iron Man, it appears some other casting news is popping its head up! Variety is reporting that rising star Emily Blunt, is in talks to play the Marvel femme fatale, Black Widow.

It seems the actress who had supporting roles in Devil Wears Prada and this year's Sunshine Cleaning has become the front runner to play Natasha Romanoff. Romanoff as a young girl was given to a russian soldier by her mother to save her from a fire that was sure to take her life. Natasha under the care of the soldier became a ballet dancer, but the death of a pilot she fell in love with made her decide to begin a life as a intelligence operative. Natasha soon became the best operative working for the K.G.B. and was dubbed the Black Widow. In one of her many comics, Black Widow entices Hawkeye to join her in trying to steal plans from industrialist Tony Stark. The two make failed attempts resulting in Natasha being injured and returned to Russia. Over the years, Black Widow has been with a couple different men, including Nick Fury!Marvel Entertainment and Jon Favreau are currently heavily seeking to cast the role and Variety implies their sights are firmly on Blunt. Emily Blunt, who is no slouch, seems like a solid choice to play the highly trained Russian weapons expert. The casting seems extremely viable considering, Blount has yet to make "big money," Marvel should be able to pick her up at a cost effective rate.

Marvel Entertainment, who replaced Terrence Howard with Don Cheadle over money issues and appears to be doing the same with Sam Jackson, is clearly worried about our current economic status. In the case of Howard being replaced for Cheadle, the change should ultimately, go unnoticed. If Jackson is replaced, there is no chance in hell, it will go unnoticed. Instead, Marvel Entertainment will be dealing with a flashfire of rabid fans. While I can understand that Marvel is definately trying to pick up an all around quality cast, without over-paying for any one particular actor (which they have), they can afford to keep Sam Jackson around.

What say you? Does Emily Blunt work as the Russian spy Black Widow? Who should play Hawkeye? Strikeback...