Marvel’s Black Widow movie could only have happened now

Marvel fans have been clamoring for a Black Widow movie since the moment Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff first appeared onscreen in 2010 Iron man 2. I know this because I’ve spent a lot of time covering this pressure and the various ways that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has responded whenever he’s been asked about it.

I also spent Black WidowCOVID’s extended pre-release period shook my head at how much more enthusiastically this film would have been received had Marvel released it in 2013 or 2014, on the heels of The Avengers‘a billion dollar success. Before we start talking about MCU fatigue. Before the character End of Game death. Prior to that, Johansson became a meme on Twitter for saying she should be allowed to play a tree.

But now that I’ve seen it, I can’t help but think that Black Widow really could not have been out so far (or, at least, until spring 2020). The reasons why are still a terribly booted goal for Marvel.

Remember, female superheroes were tough

We live in a bloom of female-led action blockbusters, especially in the comic book arena. We have not one but two Wonder Woman movies, a Captain Marvel sequel in the works, TV shows for Jessica Jones, Supergirl, Stargirl, The Scarlet Witch and soon Ms. Marvel, Ironheart and She-Hulk. We might have finally eclipsed that era of the 1990s when, in a single day of reruns, you might just see one episode of Xena, Star Trek: Voyager, Buffy the vampire slayer, and Cleopatra 2525.

That’s almost enough to make you forget how top Warner Bros. executives are. and Marvel were constantly and vocally nervous about the idea of ​​a female-led superhero film for the set of the 2010s. Catwoman and Elektra was apparently so dark that it made the smash hit of franchises like The Hunger Games and standalone films like Gravity or Maleficent, invisible.

In 2010, Warner Bros. announced that he was developing a Wonder Woman movie. The same year, Nicole Perlman (guardians of the galaxy, Captain marvel) wrote a treatment for a Black Widow movie that never took off (she doesn’t receive credit on the 2021 film). In 2013, with no Wonder Woman movie in sight, DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson called the character “difficult.” At the same time, Kevin Feige admitted that Marvel Studios had no plans to produce a solo film for a superheroine. Contrary to logic, the group led by Jennifer Lawrence Hunger games catch fire was the fifth highest grossing film of the year.

In 2014, Variety reported that there was a Black Widow film in development, but work on it had been delayed to focus on Captain Marvel on screens for the first time in 2018. Months later, Captain marvel was in turn delayed so that Marvel could focus on a sequel to The ant Man. In 2015, Patty Jenkins finally signed for Wonder woman, and when it destroyed box offices in 2017, Warner Bros. was quick to renegotiate her original contract – which had included no language locking her or Gal Gadot into a sequel. Almost as if the people involved assume that there won’t be an audience for a person.

That year, Marvel began their first serious search for a director for a Black Widow solo film. Captain Marvel hit theaters in 2019 and grossed over $ 1 billion, and Hollywood’s fear of superheroines seemed to be easing. Finally, it was Black Widowit’s your turn.

But here’s the thing about Black Widow

The easiest way to get someone to accept what they think is a significant risk is to reduce the number of risks around them. Imagine sculpting a female superhero movie in the most enjoyable way possible for a nervous director; a small jar of baby food covered with spandex.

Imagine a movie that is limited to a standard, safe-proven superhero origin story – the hero gets powers, finds out how they work, gets a brightly colored costume, knocks down a blatant villain, bravely saves the day and kindness. The lead actress is at a point in her career where she doesn’t yet have the clout to pick out the lead action roles she wants, and doesn’t have the clout to get paid like that. Preferably, the story is set at least two decades in the past, so any example of sexism encountered by the main character isn’t going to make modern men watching it squirm. And the film as a whole will have the least complicated, obvious message a Hollywood executive would think of for a female superhero movie: Peace, with a secondary order of Girl Power.

This is exactly what Wonder woman and Captain Marvel look like. These are two of the most superhero superhero movies since the first phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and are packed with Girl Power moments. That’s not a bad thing, for Wonder Woman or Captain Marvel – both characters were designed from the start to carry the weight of an overtly feminist superhero, not just a superhero who just happens to be female. .

But Black Widow will never be a pink Girl Power character – her fist raised in a We Can Do It! curl – because no one should ever do what they did. Rather than heroism and power fantasy, her character hook is atonement, hard-earned agency, and unflappable skill. And she redeems objectively horrible things! Murder, assassination and a host of [thinking face emoji] other actions for which she feels deep contrition.

That’s not a bad thing, for Black Widow. It’s not her fault she wasn’t safe enough to spoon feed a Hollywood executive. It’s Marvel’s fault, for deciding that the Avengers’ token woman would be a Reformed Supervillain.

Red in a ledger

Image: Marvel Studios

I can’t say exactly what the Marvel movers and shakers were thinking when they made Black Widow the token girl of the Avengers. Among other things, it’s pretty obvious that Natasha Romanoff is a favorite character archetype of writer-director Joss Whedon; like Buffy, River Song or Echo, she is a traumatized girl transformed into a killing machine by men.

But it’s easy to see what they weren’t thinking: They weren’t thinking about how Black Widow, a character with a dark story and no superpowers, didn’t fit into the original arc of the standard superhero upon which the Marvel Cinematic Universe was built. They weren’t thinking about the prospect of paying Scarlett Johansson a lead actress salary rather than a support salary. They weren’t thinking about using their most anticipated movie to feature another female superhero, which would have widened the range of choices for an established MCU superheroine to grow into her own franchise. They weren’t choosing a character considering whether or not she was viable to direct a first superhero movie.

Before Black Widow could go ahead he needed 2017 Wonder woman. Just four months after hitting screens, Marvel finally recruited a new screenwriter to Black Widow. Wonder woman had made female-led superhero movies viable, and within a year, Black Widow finally had a director. But Marvel still prioritized the undisclosed Captain Marvel over a character fans had known for nine years. Her story was of a standard, energetic superhero origin and fit into the feminist-lite mold that Hollywood is most comfortable in. Now, and only now, could Marvel bring a dark and funny, female-focused spy film into their superhero universe.

It’s easy to imagine Marvel executives breathing a sigh of relief at Black Widow’s death in Avengers: Endgame. Now, they would have the perfect excuse not to have to negotiate with Scarlett Johansson – Hollywood’s highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019 – on a solo franchise, just the only solo film already on the release schedule.

Marvel never built Black Widow to be a franchise character. And thanks to that, she never will be.