Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanoff, has been a pinnacle part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) since she first appeared on screen in the Jon Favreau directed Iron Man 2 (2010), and a central part of The Avengers team since they first assembled in 2012. Now, just days after returning to the big screen and kicking ass in Captain America: Civil War (On Team Iron Man, if you were wondering!), Marvel has said that they are committed to giving Black Widow a solo movie in the not so far off future.
Kevin Fiege, the man at the top of the Marvel Movie Making food chain, confirmed to Deadline that there will be more Marvel movies beyond the current slate of films, which ends at Avengers: Infinity War Part 2 in 2019, and that a Black Widow solo movie is at the top of their wish list. “I would say certainly the one creatively and emotionally that we are most committing to doing is Black Widow” says Fiege.
“We think she’s an amazing character. We think Scarlett Johansson’s portrayal of her is amazing. She’s a lead Avenger and has amazing stories in her own right to tell that we think would be fun to turn into a stand-along franchise”.
As the first female in the MCU’s ever expanding Avengers team, Black Widow has contributed massively to protecting the world from both Loki and the Chitauri in Avengers (2012), Iron Mans robot-gone-rogue Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), HYDRA in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), and then, despite their friendship, fighting against Captain America in the newly released Captain America: Civil War. No doubt she will also have a big part to play in the third and fourth Avenger films, when after a long build up that spanned man films in the MCU the Avengers will finally come to blows with Thanos and his infinity Gauntlet, made up of the five infinity stones that have made appearances throughout the series. Scheduled for release in 2018 and 2019, the third and fourth Avenger films will be titled Infinity War Part 1 and Infinity War Part 2 (though directors Joe and Anthony Russo warn that those title will change prior to release!), and will see the Avengers compromise of a much bigger group of Super Heroes than we’ve ever seen on screen before, rumoured to be up to 40 of them!
Johansson’s Black Widow has become a fan favourite amongst cinema goers, and along with The Hulk, fans have spent years yearning for a solo movie. While Black Widow might be on the way, however, Fiege revealed that the same style of deal that Marvel struck with Sony to allow Spiderman to appear in Captain America: Civil War would have to be struck with Universal Pictures if Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk was to take to the screens alone. For now, though, fans can look forward to seeing him return in Thor: Ragnarok (2017), after both the Hulk and Thor skipped out on the events of Civil War. Maybe they were both preoccupied on Thor’s home planet Asgard dealing with the fallout of the last Thor film, which saw the mischievous Loki ascend to the throne disguised as his father Odin, or maybe they just couldn’t decide what team they wanted to be on. We don’t blame them…we can’t make up our minds either!
A BlackWidow solo movie has been long anticipated, and even though we’ve still got a few years to wait yet, and nothing is officially confirmed, we cannot wait to see Black Widow step up to a starring role in her own movie!
Are you excited by the prospect of Black Widow going solo? Maybe we’ll FINALLY find out what she got up to in Budapest with Hawk Eye!
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