The thing about Black Widow, which is opening in theaters and on Disney+ on July 9, is that this might be Scarlett Johansson’s last time occupying the role that she held down in the MCU for a decade. Marvel fans know that Natasha sacrificed herself in Avengers: Endgame so that Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) could obtain the Soul Stone. That’s why Black Widow is a prequel, and while Johansson certainly keeps the door open to collaboration, this could be the victory lap. That’s why, on our video above, the actress tells CinemaBlend why her final day on set was equal parts painful and draining. Watch the video above.
For starters, Scarlett Johansson was plagued by a savage case of pneumonia by the time that she reached her final day on the Black Widow set. Director Cate Shortland confirmed that to us a few days ago, which is why Johansson described it to us this way:
Yes, I definitely had… I fully was on like an inhaler at that point, crawling towards the finish line of the MCU.
Scarlett Johansson remembers that her final shot on this movie was a moment where Black Widow and the new villain Taskmaster were facing off for their last fight beat. We won’t go into details on it, and will leave it for you to see it play out in the theater. But she also had a very good reason why this last scene was emotionally draining, for completely different reasons. Johansson told us:
It was actually even made more emotional because Heidi Moneymaker, who is my longtime stunt collaborator, who has been with me on this journey for 10 years, it was also HER last day as Black Widow. And so it was very fitting that she was present for that. And we just, you know, took a moment to survey this decade of time, and what we built together. We had all the feels.
It sounds like Scarlett Johansson very much was treating her last day on the set of Black Widow as the last time she might appear as the super spy who was a founding member of The Avengers and a staple of the MCU since its earliest days. Widow has been integral to so many Marvel Studios movies, including Captain America: Civil War, and the one-two punch of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. That led Johansson to joke that she feels like she has been saying “goodbye” to the MCU for years. She joked:
I feel like there have been like seven ‘last days’ for me on these films. I’ve had so many last days, and they were all full of tears.
But unless Kevin Feige needs Black Widow for another prequel, or if they find a role for her in a Disney+ television series, Scarlett Johansson’s character finally will be able to rest in peace. See her newest mission once Black Widow lands in theaters and on streaming on July 9.
