The cast list for Iron Man 2 continues to swell as Scarlett Johansson signs on to play the Black Widow.

Okay, so The Spirit wasn’t exactly the comic-book blockbuster that Scarlett Johansson was hoping for.  But she’s getting her second chance at hitting it big in leather spandex by scoring the plum part of the Black Widow in Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2, according to Hollywood journo Nikke Finke.  A Russian super-spy with better-than-Bond moves, the Widow was originally set to be portrayed by British actress Emily Blunt, but, according to Finke, she was forced to drop out due to contract obligations to another studio.  That’s great news for Johansson, who hasn’t exactly made the best career choices of late.  Plus, this way she follows in the footsteps of new hubby Ryan Reynolds, who has starred in two movies based on Marvel comics, Blade: Trinity and the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  Johansson joins a cast that includes Don Cheadle as Jim Rhodes a.k.a. War Machine (the part previously played by Terrence Howard), Mickey Rourke as a Russian villain and Sam Rockwell as a rival industrialist to Tony Stark.  And one can only assume that she’ll be swapping spit with Stark, which should lead to some interesting fireworks between her and Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts.

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