Rachel Weisz has largely stayed away from the realm of big budget blockbusters throughout her career, but she gets a lifetime pass from fans of the genre anyway, having starred as Evie in Stephen Sommers’ enduring cult classic The Mummy. In fact, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Black Widow is her first big budget effort since The Bourne Legacy nine years ago, and the projects even boast a couple of superficial similarities.
The spinoff to Matt Damon’s marquee franchise sees Weisz become wrapped up in a shady government conspiracy revolving around mind-altering chemicals, forcing her to go on the run with Jeremy Renner’s Aaron Cross. In Black Widow, the actress’ Melina Vostokoff has been wrapped up in the shady government conspiracy revolving around mind-altering chemicals since the very beginning, with Natasha Romanoff’s Scarlett Johansson the one on the run, who was of course a longtime partner of Clint Barton, played by Jeremy Renner.
It was hardly the most demanding role of the two-time Academy Award nominee’s career, but in a new interview Weisz replied when asked that she’d be interested in returning to the MCU if Melina were to follow the precedent set by her comic book counterpart and dive headfirst into full blown villainy.
“Definitely, yes. If it’s written, I would be very interested. Yes.”
In the pages of Marvel Comics, Melina Vostokoff is an assassin known as Iron Maiden, who wears a lightweight armored exoskeleton that covers her entire body and protects her from damage. It’s not the easiest look to translate into live-action, but the broad strokes of the her villainous persona would certainly mark an interesting change of pace for Weisz. Should Black Widow get sequels with Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova in the lead, then turning Melina to the dark side is one potential storyline avenue, while she’s also been a member of the Thunderbolts in the past.
