Scarlett Johansson discusses the possibility of a Black Widow solo film

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

There are over twenty films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, if we count the ones we've yet to see in addition to Marvel's Phase Three installments, but a solo Black Widow film starring Scarlett Johansson is not among them. While her character certainly hasn't been absent from the Marvel films, having appeared in IRON MAN 2, THE AVENGERS, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, and appearances in the upcoming AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON and CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, fans have become increasingly vocal over the years about their desire to see Scarlett Johansson headline her own film.

Collider recently spoke with the actress and asked her about the status of a Black Widow film and whether that's something she'd be interested in doing:

I think that there’s room for a standalone movie. The character has a really rich origin story and I’ve been really fortunate to kind of place all these layers on top of one another and kind of build up this character to this point where I think I can now start to peel them away and reveal different sides of her and really focus on—I think I’ve been able to grow with the character, the character’s been able to grow with me.

 

Her dilemma that she faces it’s a deeply personal one, she has this great, huge, epic kind of calling and now is suddenly going, ‘Wait a minute. I have this epic calling, but I wanna make a choice for myself. I feel like I’ve put in the hours, I should be able to make active choices’ and she inevitably chooses the heroic path and kind of puts her own personal desires and needs aside. Those are things that kind of butt up against each other and interesting things happen when you have a character that’s pulled in many different directions and in my mind there’s room for plenty more Black Widow and certainly more—I think I could see her in a standalone film.

Initially Marvel wasn't entirely sure how audiences would react to the character when she was first introduced, but since then she's become an essential member of the Marvel team with the rare ability of being able to pair off well with each character.

My contract has changed. Marvel and myself didn’t really know how the fans were gonna react to Black Widow the first time and how she was gonna be—they couldn’t anticipate how they would want to use her or if they would want to use her. I mean we invested in that character, but the audience had a great reaction to the character, which has been so awesome. For instance, I wasn’t contracted into doing Cap movies, but that storyline worked out so well I kind of branched off and I found myself in that standalone movie. My contract is kind of mutating, I guess [laughs] or morphed to fit the demand of the character.

A standalone Black Widow film could take on so many different forms, which is what makes the idea so appealing; they could go the origin route and fill us in on how Natasha Romanoff first became the Black Widow, or perhaps we could finally find out what happened in Budapest with a Black Widow/Hawkeye team-up film. The point is, whatever form the potential film ends up taking, there are still so many possibilities for the character and I for one would love to see Scarlett get that chance before she moves on from Marvel.

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON is fast approaching its May 1, 2015 release; are you tired of hearing that yet?

Would you like to see a Black Widow standalone film?