The Avengers: Age of Ultron press tour has been producing some pretty great stuff for fans. The latest? Literally anything said about a Black Widow solo film.
Black Widow has proven her superhero worth in Iron Man 2, The Avengers, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. We know she’ll continue showing everyone up in Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War but why has the character, played by Scarlett Johansson, not gotten her turn at a solo outing yet?
Speaking with Collider Johansson delved into the hot topic:
I think that there’s room for a standalone movie. The character has a really rich origin story and I’ve been really fortunate to kind of place all these layers on top of one another and kind of build up this character to this point where I think I can now start to peel them away and reveal different sides of her and really focus on—I think I’ve been able to grow with the character, the character’s been able to grow with me.
Her dilemma that she faces it’s a deeply personal one, she has this great, huge, epic kind of calling and now is suddenly going, ‘Wait a minute. I have this epic calling, but I wanna make a choice for myself. I feel like I’ve put in the hours, I should be able to make active choices’ and she inevitably chooses the heroic path and kind of puts her own personal desires and needs aside. Those are things that kind of butt up against each other and interesting things happen when you have a character that’s pulled in many different directions and in my mind there’s room for plenty more Black Widow and certainly more—I think I could see her in a standalone film.
Let’s give a brief timeline of just Black Widow movies news over the last year, shall we?
- In March of 2014, Johansson said “If you want to see a Black Widow spin-off movie, then I want to see it.”
- In August we sobbed upon learning Guardian of the Galaxy’s Nicole Perlman had written a treatment for a Black Widow film but Marvel had “a lot on their plates.”
- Also in August we nodded our heads as Jessica Chastain said “Where is the Scarlett Johansson superhero movie? I don’t understand it, why is it taking so long for this?””
- Our eyes went wide in September when we found out the Black Widow character almost had a film before Iron Man.
- October had Robert Downey Jr. discussing how a Black Widow solo film would work well. “It just seems like whatever Scarlett does people want to go see it,” he said.
- That month also brought the huge reveal of Marvel’s Phase 3 films which held their announcement of their first female solo film… featuring Captain Marvel.
- That same day, fans on tumblr and beyond started campaigning heavily for a Black Widow film.
- In November, Black Widow comics writer Nathan Edmonson showed support for the idea by publishing a six-page opener for a movie.
Annnnnd exhale. While not everyone thinks Black Widow would have been the best choice for Marvel’s first solo film, it’s safe to say many fans would still like to see one before the end of time.
Johansson also told Collider her contract with Marvel is “mutating” which is a great word to use, also saying she’s definitely spoken to Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige about a solo film.
“I mean, of course, of course we’ve had that conversation before, and I think Kevin would also like to see a standalone film,” she said, and yes, he’s said as much. “I think I can speak for him and say that. That’s all, really. Right now I think this character is used well in this part of the universe, but I think that Kevin—I mean, we’ve talked about it and we both share similar vision for what could be a standalone series.”
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