Black Widow Stand-Alone: 10 Things Marvel Must Do
Widow's all-but-announced solo movie has a lot riding on it.
Ever since her first onscreen appearance in the otherwise lifeless Iron Man 2, fans have been clamouring for a standalone Black Widow movie - and now it seems they might finally be getting it.
Marvel President of production Kevin Feige recently semi-confirmed that a Black Widow movie is in active development, despite a slightly worrying lack of any official announcement, release date or title. But still, it's on the way.
While this is well overdue (there was a disastrous project years ago that was killed by Aeon Flux, weirdly), both in terms of the studio's lack of female-led movies and star Scarlett Johansson's long tenure in the franchise, there's still a lot that needs to be done to ensure it's a movie worth making. It's no good it just being done for the sake of diversity.
These, then are the many boxes Marvel needs to tick in order to do Natasha Romanoff's story justice...
10. Actually Make It And Stop Just Talking About It
This isn't the first time Kevin Feige or other people have brought up the possibility of a Black Widow solo picture. Back in 2010, during a press event for the blu-ray/DVD release of Iron Man 2, Feige floated the notion, with the caveat that "The Avengers comes first." Two Avengers movies later and we're only marginally closer to that promise becoming a reality.
Since Feige's first tentative statement, other Marvel executives have stated their enthusiasm, along with many of Johansson's frequent co-stars like Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo and Chris Evans.
This, alongside the stated desires of both Clark Gregg and Joss Whedon to direct Johansson in a Black Widow movie, makes you wonder what's happening behind the scenes that the film wasn't confirmed sooner.
Poor Johansson herself has registered her desire for a starring role as the Widow on numerous occasions with less and less certainty such a film would even be possible. Since Marvel announced their release dates through 2019, we can hope for a Black Widow in 2020 at the earliest.
Better late than never, I suppose, but should the character really have to wait ten years for a single solo story while Cap and Buckethead have received trilogies in half that time?