Marvel’s Kevin Feige Praises Disney Following Black Widow Lawsuit

Marvel‘s President Kevin Feige is praising his parent company Disney after the House of Mouse made an amicable settlement with Black Widow actor Scarlett Johansson following her lawsuit, EpicStream reports.

The settlement came last week with a guarantee of a $40 million paycheck and left open the opportunity to renew the working partnership Johansson has with Disney. This comes after the actress leveled a lawsuit related to a contract breach when Disney decided to give Black Widow a hybrid release both in theaters and on Disney Plus.

Feige previously threw his support behind Johansson, saying that he was “angry and embarrassed” at Disney’s decision to release the superhero flick in both theaters and on Disney Plus simultaneously.

Now, Feige is leveling compliments at the company, reportedly calling Disney CEO Bob Chapek “a creative guy, a nice guy, a real guy,” after previously being critical of him. Feige added that Chapek provides “just enough of an opinion to give good feedback.”

This is good news for both Disney and Johansson, as it appears that there’s already a Disney project that she’s attached to. She’s set to produce and possibly star in its upcoming Tower of Terror adaptation. More importantly, the now cordial relationship between Johansson and Disney opens up the possibility of her Natasha Romanoff returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Though the character was previously killed off in Avengers: Endgame, the animated Marvel series What If…? did feature a plot point in which a Black Widow from a dystopian alternative universe is plucked from that reality and placed into one in which that branch of the multiverse’s Romanoff had died. Might Marvel employ a similar tactic to get Black Widow back onto the silver screen in the future? Only time will tell.