Lionsgate licensed Black widow from Marvel in 2004. It hired David Hayter to write a script and Avi Arad to direct it that year before passing on the project in 2006.

Scarlett Johansson was hired to appear as Black widow in Iron Man 2 in 2009.

In 2010, Kevin Feige told interviewers that he had "discussed" a solo Black widow film with Johansson.

Feige reiterated that he wanted to make a solo film featuring the character in a 2014 interview. He also said that he'd comissioned a treatment from Nicole Perlman (who wrote the first draft of Guardians of the galaxy 1 and Captain Marvel).

Lots of creatives pitched ideas for the project. Worth a read:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Widow_(2021_film)#Production

Ok?

We probably would have gotten a solo film about the character if Disney hadn't left Ike Perlmutter in charge of Marvel. Perlmutter - a comitted racist - didn't believe audiences would show up for a female super hero movie:

https://time.com/3847432/marvel-ceo-leaked-email/

He was wrong, in principle: people fucking love super hero movies.

>Lucy

Lucy was produced by a consortium of European production companies who believed in Johansson's ability to lead a film.

Johansson's agents probably used Lucy's performance as part of their negotiation for her salary for Black widow.