Scarlett Johansson's Baby Bump Almost Scuppered Avengers: Age Of Ultron

Scarlett Johansson's Baby Bump Almost Scuppered Avengers: Age Of Ultron
Doug Peters/Doug Peters

Scarlett Johansson's pregnancy has caused a bit of a headache for the producers of her latest movie Avengers: Age of Ultron.

The 29-year-old actress is reportedly due to give birth to her first child in August and her growing baby bump has forced Marvel Studio bigwigs to ponder the question:

Just what can you do if your leading lady becomes pregnant during filming for a fight-heavy action flick, and you don't want to risk jeopardising a million dollar franchise? Do you...

a) Heavily edit the script so that Scarlett's character, the Black Widow, somehow becomes pregnant too?

b) Alter the Black Widow's skin tight costume to make it a little more... billowy?

Or c) Make sure that a pot plant or large bowl of fruit always happens to be in front of the Black Widow's stomach during wide shots?

Avengers fans will be relieved to know that rather than doing any of the above, Marvel Studio bosses have decided to take an alternative approach to solving the problem.

Scarlett's bump will be smoothed away in post production using CGI.

The Sun reports that during filming, Scarlett has been wearing a suit with a green band around her midriff, which will allow the film's special effects team to remove any sign of her pregnancy during editing.

According to the film's director, Joss Whedon, although Scarlett's tummy may have to be slimmed down in the sequel, her role certainly won't be made any smaller, as the Black Widow will be much more heavily featured this time around.

Scarlett is currently in the UK for filming at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, with her co-stars Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner and new father Chris Hemsworth.

While Scarlett herself has been 'keeping mum' about her pregnancy, Marvel Studios President of Production Kevin Feige spilled the beans about how her condition is affecting filming during an interview with Collider.com last month.

"Well my first reaction was I was very happy for her and very excited for her," he said.

"My second reaction was we've got to move some pieces on the chess board around schedule-wise. But we didn't change the script at all, which is sort of the most important things for us in terms of the storyline.'"

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