The future is female is a sentiment that seemed in full force at this year’s Elle Women in Hollywood. With stars like Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, Zendaya, and many more having their time to shine, every fan had a chance to learn something new about their favorite actors. We got trailers, news, and so much more while seeing some of our favorites being honored.
Or, if you’re like me, you had the moment of “Wait, what?” when Scarlett Johansson took to the stage. At the event, Johansson’s comment about the Black Widow stand-alone film really piqued my interest.
ScarJo notes that the upcoming BLACK WIDOW is the first Marvel movie produced by one of its actors. She also referred to it as a “standalone franchise” which is interesting if you expected it to be a one-off based on… you know pic.twitter.com/5UkCAXXnYu
— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) October 15, 2019
So, again, wait what? To my knowledge, Black Widow is a standalone film and a one-off. It was seemingly the only one we were going to get with Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff because, in order for the Avengers to succeed, Natasha had to die for the Soul Stone on Vormir. So while this “prequel” film is set after Captain America: Civil War, I never really saw a way of Natasha getting her own trilogy as many of her male counterparts did.
From her introduction in Iron Man 2 until her death in Avengers: Endgame, Natasha Romanoff has been a constant in many of the stand-alone films for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so the fact that she never got a movie while she was living has been a point of contention for many fans (especially me) for quite some time. Natasha never even enjoyed equal space on joint Avengers merchandise, let alone screentime or a story all her own.
With Johansson’s choice of phrasing, however, I have to wonder if that means that the Black Widow movies might be our first look into a multiverse-esque turn in the MCU. Natasha Romanoff may exist in other universes and those storylines can be told in her movies. Or maybe ScarJo just knows that Florence Pugh is going to take over the mantle of Black Widow (something that her character Yelena Belova does in the comics) and that will lead to more Black Widow movies.
Whatever the case may be, and however we feel about Johansson offscreen, it does delight me that we’ll be seeing more Natasha. For so long, her vital character was forced into being the woman who had to help the male hero reach his goal and often knew more than the man did (what up, Iron Man 2, Winter Soldier). How her character can fit into the grand plan of the next phase of the MCU is where the confusion lies, but we imagine Marvel has a variety of plans in store.
I’m team “ScarJo announced a multiverse” but until we receive further news, at least we haven’t seen the last of Natasha Romanoff.
(image: Marvel Entertainment)
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