When the MCU first got its start, it was high on the brawn and low on the girl power. Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow doing a crotch-throat grab in black leather and Natalie Portman, Hayley Atwell and Gwyneth Paltrow as supportive girlfriends on the sidelines to the big-league heroes was all there was amidst Marvel’s boys club. Since then, a ton more female Marvel characters have been introduced into the universe that are just as badass, clever and quick-witted as their male counterparts. That being said, the walls are still stacked behind the women of Marvel leading their own solo movies. Out of the Marvel movies released so far, only 2019’s Captain Marvel and 2021’s Black Widow is all we’ve seen.
Among the upcoming Marvel movie slate, only one movie so far will be either led and directed by women, next year’s The Marvels. And yet, there are so many incredible female Marvel characters who are deserving of their own film. Here are our picks:
Scarlet Witch
Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch is arguably the strongest Avenger in the MCU. The character has been featured in multiple Avengers films, the first Marvel Disney+ show WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. She continues to be a favorite Marvel character with each new appearance. It would be awesome to see Wanda lead her own film following such a deep backstory being built for her character. Bring on more chaos magic!
Valkyrie
Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie quickly became a fan-favorite when she appeared in Thor: Ragnarok and since then, Marvel has promoted the character to King of Asgard as Chris Hemsworth’s hero went down a rough road during the Infinity War. Valkyrie is set to return in Thor: Love and Thunder, but we’d follow the super heroine to other corners of the universe even without the God of Thunder.
Yelena Belova
We waited way too long for the Black Widow solo movie and then when it came out Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova stole the show right under from Scarlett Johansson. The younger sister of Black Widow has an intriguing way forward in the MCU given she has the chance to be the hero the studio was somewhat still figuring out with her arc. Yelena recently helped free an army of Black Widow soldiers and could have her own espionage thriller within the universe.
Captain Carter
Over the summer, Marvel rolled out an animated series that brought back Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter to play “Captain Carter,” an alternate version of Captain America where Peggy gets the super serum instead of Steve Rogers. Atwell’s Captain America character has long been a favorite, having a two-season run on ABC’s Agent Carter as well. And now that Chris Evans has hung up his shield, it’d be fun for the studio to take their What If idea to the big screen, perhaps as a multiverse spinoff storyline.
Ajak
Eternals just introduced a myriad of heroes into the MCU, but one character particularly would be deserving of their own film: Salma Hayek’s Ajak. The character is the original Prime Eternal along with being the group’s leader until she is killed in the film. Considering the Eternals have been around for thousands of years, there are a ton of possibilities regarding storylines from eras all across time. Salma Hayek is an incredible actress and could easily lead her own Marvel film.
Gamora
Zoe Saldana’s Gamora was first introduced as one of the members of the Guardians of the Galaxy and has remained so, but as we’ve gotten to know her more, it’s clear she has a rich character that could be explored without the rest of the team. She’s the adopted daughter of Thanos, who took her in after he killed off half her race. Gamora’s origins before she meets Peter Quill could be a great prequel, or a solo adventure that could further delve into the secrets within the galaxy.
The Wasp
In 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp, Michelle Pfeiffer’s Janet Van Dyne reunited with her family after thirty years stuck in the Quantum Realm. With that in mind, there’s three decades of a missing timeline for the OG Wasp that could be a really interesting way for the MCU to explore the Quantum Realm itself. It could play like a survivor movie where Janet finds herself in the mysterious place and learns to live in a reality where “all concepts of time and space become irrelevant as you shrink for all eternity” as Hank Pym has described it.
Jessica Jones
Remember when Netflix made Marvel shows? Well ever since Charlie Cox’s Daredevil made a cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home, these characters belong to Disney/Marvel Studios now. All the shows from the comic book universe Netflix explored are also now available to watch on Disney+ including Jessica Jones. So technically, Jessica Jones could become part of the MCU, or at least have her own movie from the studio. Krysten Ritter’s character is a well-loved character who could continue her story on the big screen following the cancellation of her magnificent series.
Spider-Gwen
We’ve seen many Peter Parker / Spider-Man movies play out, but what about Spider-Gwen? Spider-Gwen is a comic book character that follows Gwen Stacy in another universe where she is the one to get the spider bite and Peter dies in her arms. The character was explored over animation in Into the Spider-Verse. Now that the multiverse has been opened in the MCU, it would be exciting to see another version of the Spider-Man origin story through Spider-Gwen, who by the way has a super cool rock band called The Mary Janes. It’d be an especially great idea with Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man, who he could accidentally meet (both from other universes) and have a love story across dimensions.
Storm
The X-Men movies introduced a lot of incredible characters over the years, but over the years only a few of them were explored in a solo capacity. One especially great one is Storm, who Halle Berry made famous before Alexandra Shipp also briefly played her. Storm, aka Ororo Munroe, is a really great character within the comics who could intersect in the MCU outside the context of the X-Men. She’ll bring the thunder!
So many ideas for the next female Marvel solo movie! We’ll have to wait and see which characters get movies next. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more updates about the expanding MCU.
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