“Definitely possible… Yes, absolutely.”
So spoke Marvel Studios’ president, Kevin Feige, in answer to a recent question regarding the possibility of a BLACK WIDOW solo movie. Said question was asked at an IRON MAN 2 press conference and, according to Slashfilm, Scarlett Johansson already has it in her contract that she’ll be reprising her role as Natasha Romanova in the AVENGERS movie. I didn’t realize that, until today, and I think it’d be great if she was part of the team, because an Avengers line-up with only four members ( Cap, Iron Man, Hulk and Thor)always seemed… limited. You’d at least need Ant/ Giant-Man (GiAnt-Man), Wasp or Black Widow. Basically, all the bugs.
Spin-off talks always pop up for these movies. I remember talk of Nightstalkers movie coming out of BLADE TRINITY and, of course, a DEADPOOL movie coming out of WOLVERINE. Surprisingly, I think ELEKTRA is the only example of this sort of thing actually playing out. The other funny thing is that there actually was a Black Widow solo movie in the works a while back that was to be written and directed by David “ Solid Snake” Hayter. We ran an article a while back about Hayter’s reflections on the experience - - he even named his daughter after the character!
Of all the third string Marvel characters, I’ve always thought Black Widow stood one of the best chances of working as a movie character. She’s similar to Blade in that she’s got enough of a unique gimmick that she can work outside of the context of a superhero universe and she can be broken down into an easy “elevator pitch” that mainstream audiences can understand. That is, she’s like a female Jason Bourne, or a she-spy with a lot more credibility to her girl power.
Do you concur, oh spider-named Comic Vine community?
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia. Pre-order the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover now on Amazon.com.