Scarlett Johansson reminds us that Black Widow is dead, and I’m reminded how unfair that was

Scarlett Johansson did an interview recently where she talked about the sad fate of her most beloved character.

“Natasha is dead. She is dead. She’s dead. Okay?” the A-list actress told InStyle. “They [Marvel fans] just don’t want to believe it. They’re like, ‘But she could come back!’ Look, I think the balance of the entire universe is held in her hand. We’re going to have to let it go. She saved the world. Let her have her hero moment.”

The trouble is, that “hero moment” came with baggage—baggage the Marvel Cinematic Universe simply wasn’t equipped to handle. Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, was, at the beginning of the MCU, the only female superhero in the Avengers. She was the token woman and subject to sexism when it came to the film’s marketing: She was left off some of the merch because apparently boys must be coddled when it comes to toys and only given male dolls.

What do you do with the woman who kickstarted the female action representation in the MCU? You don’t fridge her for the character development of the men, right? But that’s exactly what happens in Avengers: Endgame. Natasha sacrifices herself to save Hawkeye from having to die to collect the Soul Stone, and the movie is so overstuffed that the now all-male Avengers team only gets a minute or so to mourn her. Any relationships Natasha might have formed with women–why couldn’t she bond with Nebula (Karen Gillan), who has a similar backstory?–are ignored until the prequel, Black Widow. There, we meet Natasha’s adoptive sister, Yelena (Florence Pugh), and it’s true that Yelena reacts to and grieves Natasha’s death as the MCU goes on. But she didn’t exist as a character in the movies when the choice was first made to fridge Natasha.

There’s a double standard involving Black Widow

Some would argue that Natasha’s death was fitting for her character because she had a problematic past. However, so did Hawkeye by that point, yet he got to live on while Natasha’s redemption meant only death. It always felt like a double standard.

Then there’s another double standard: Natasha needs to stay dead… but hardly any of the male characters do in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Vision (Paul Bettany) should both be dead many times over by now, but Loki lives on as a god, and Vision is about to get a new series, Vision Quest. Tony Stark is actually dead, but Robert Downey Jr is set to return to the MCU as Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday, a baffling move that indicates Kevin Feige thought the franchise couldn’t survive without him. So the question hangs in the air: if Downey can return, why can’t Johansson?

There’s a case to be made, of course, that maybe Johansson doesn’t want to return. Marvel movies are hard work, after all. But that still doesn’t excuse fridging Natasha and killing her off when there’s so much more that could have been done with her. She should have gotten the same treatment Captain America (Chris Evans) did—a graceful retirement with the chance to return in the future.

She deserved better, and I’ve never quite forgiven Marvel for what they did to her.