Iron Man has a couple of movies. Thor has two. Captain America now has a trilogy in the making, and even Hulk has been in a couple of films. The roster for The Avengers is pretty starry and accomplished on their own, leaving only Hawkeye and the Black Widow without movies. And the Widow is played by Scarlett Johansson, one of the most famous actresses in the world. Doesn’t it make sense that she’d get at least one movie of her own by now?
The topic has been broached plenty of times, including by Marvel head Kevin Feige. But if you ask Johansson, the time to make that movie is now. At the London premiere of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Johansson told a reporter, "If you want to see a Black Widow spin-off movie, then I want to see it. We'll see. We will put the request into Marvel tomorrow." Which is just awfully considerate of her!
It’s not just about quota-filling with the Black Widow, who would be only the second female character to front a Marvel-produced film since Elektra. No, it would be about the strength of the character herself, who celebrates her fiftieth birthday next month (and still looks great!). She started out as a supervillain, a product of the Cold War that ended up spying on Iron Man to secure Soviet secrets. She eventually defects to America when they attempt to brainwash her, becoming one of the longest-running Avengers. And as far as romance, she’s basically the female Derek Jeter of the Marvel universe, having engaged in romantic relationships with Iron Man, Daredevil, Hawkeye, Hercules (oh yeah), and the Winter Soldier (huh).
Of course, this probably doesn’t mean much. Feige already seems gunshy about a Black Widow movie, and Johansson is actually shooting Avengers: Age Of Ultron while pregnant. But The Winter Soldier seems to suggest the Widow has plans outside of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Pure speculation on our part.) Perhaps she becomes an independent contractor down the line? Maybe she and Hawkeye actually run those black ops they talked about in the first Avengers? Maybe… she was a mole all along! Not even Jack Bauer could have sniffed that one out!
Of course, the worry with Marvel is that when they finally do get around to making a Black Widow movie they might not even have Johansson around. The Black Widow moniker has passed to many others beyond Natasha Romanoff in the comics, which is something that’s surely been used as a negotiation tactic to get Johansson back into the catsuit repeatedly. In the Ultimates universe of the comics, Romanoff was proven to be a traitor, and was executed brutally by Hawkeye. Her replacement, Monica Chang-Fury, was actually an ex-wife of Nick Fury who remains angry at the cycloptic S.H.I.E.L.D. director because he cheated with several members of her family, including her mother. Wait, hold on a second – make THAT movie, Marvel.
