It seems like only yesterday we were talking about how Joss Whedon had a problem with the state of modern blockbusters. Oh, wait, that was only yesterday. Well, though I can’t imagine his stance has changed, those opinions may not exactly rule him out of the blockbuster game for good, as there’s one badass hero he still wants to do justice: Black Widow.
Speaking with IGN, Whedon dished on how much he wants to do a Widow movie, giving it a sort of JASON BOURNE treatment:
If someone pointed at me and said, 'Do you wanna make a Black Widow movie?' the answer would be, 'duh'. I think that character really is very interesting and very earthbound, so it's the kind of action that I got to do less of with somebody like Thor or The Vision. When you get into your Superman territory, it's harder to maintain the gritty action that the Russo brothers do so brilliantly, and she's got that kind of thing and [you can] really do a spy thriller. Like really do a good, paranoid, 'John le Carré on crack' sort of thing. That would be really fun.
But even Whedon is grounded enough to admit there’s more than one reason he wants to do a Widow movie, and it’s one I’m sure we could all respect:
Scarlett Johansson is just delightful. She works really hard, but she just spends most of her time cracking me up, so it would be a fun shoot.
In the same interview, Whedon mentioned a new screenplay he was working on, but it sounded like nothing fanboys would clamor over:
Every movie I've directed has been an adaptation of something that has already existed, so I am working on an original screenplay that is not that. I can't say much about it, but I hope it's a step forward.
A Black Widow movie is something the world desperately needs, not only for the sake of more DARK KNIGHT-level, grounded superhero movies, but because of the shocking lack of female heroes getting their own marquee. Ever since the hubbub last year over Widow not getting her own action figure along with the other male heroes for AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, the world has demanded that female heroines get as much respect as the boys do. I think a Widow movie would not only be very progressive for women in the genre, but would also be wholly unique as a smaller spy thriller, juxtaposed alongside the massive-scaled AVENGERS movies. Simply put, it would be f@cking badass, and Whedon would make it just so.