While promoting Avengers: Age of Ultron, Scarlett Johansson tells the press everything she knows about a potential Black Widow movie. And it’s not much.
Among the masses of superheroes on big and small screens these days, few female characters seem to be drawn strongly enough to warrant their own solo movie franchises.
Both DC and Marvel have a token female superhero movie in the works — Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, respectively — but what about the most established female hero in the MCU, the Black Widow?
When Scarlett Johansson was asked about a solo movie five years ago, when her character made her on-screen debut in Iron Man 2, her answer was a resounding “maybe.” And today, that answer remains pretty much the same.
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“I’ve spoken to Kevin [Feige, Marvel Studios president] about it,” Johansson tells Collider. “I mean, of course, of course, we’ve had that conversation before, and I think Kevin would also like to see a standalone film. I think I can speak for him and say that.”
But ‘want’ and ‘make it happen, like, yesterday’ are two very different things.
With the Black Widow an integral part of Captain America’s story, her role in Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War are both set to be significant. “I think this character is used well in this part of the universe,” Johansson allows. But it’s still not a solo movie.
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“I think that there’s room for a standalone movie,” she says. “The character has a really rich origin story, [and] I’ve been able to grow with the character. In my mind there’s room for plenty more Black Widow.”
Johansson says she has a very good relationship with Marvel, and that as far as ideas go, she and Feige seem to be on the same page about “what could be a standalone series” of Black Widow movies.
But with Marvel having booked itself up for the next five years, we’re at the point now where we’ll believe it when — and if — we see it.