Captain Marvel may have been the first installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to have a female superhero front and center, but even if it wasn’t for the continued backlash against star Brie Larson from certain sections of the fanbase, Carol Danvers would still have some way to go in order to usurp Natasha Romanoff as the franchise’s most popular female character.
It helps that Scarlett Johansson has been part of the MCU for a decade, of course, and was always regarded as a key member of the Avengers despite her lack of enhanced abilities. But for some reason, it took ten years and Natasha’s death in Avengers: Endgame for the former S.H.I.E.L.D. operative to get her own standalone outing.
We’re just a couple of months away from Black Widow hitting theaters now, which is welcome news for those suffering withdrawal symptoms as we find ourselves in the midst of the longest gap between new MCU movies in a decade, and as the promotional trail continues to gather momentum, Johansson has offered up some new details on the story.
In news that will no doubt upset some of the more narrow-minded trolls, the 35 year-old admitted that Black Widow will look to address some current issues, as well as revealing that the crux of the plot is all about women helping women.
“It would be such a miss if we didn’t address that stuff, if this film didn’t take that head-on. I think, particularly for Cate, it was so important for her to make a movie about women who are helping other women, who lift other women up out of a very difficult situation. Someone asked me if Natasha was a feminist. Of course she is, it’s obvious. It’s kind of an asinine question.”
Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova and Rachel Weisz’s Melina Vostokoff both play featured roles in Black Widow, and with the former set to pick up the mantle and play a prominent part in the MCU going forward, it shouldn’t come as much surprise that Natasha’s swansong will look to lay the foundations for the next generation of female-driven stories in the world’s biggest franchise.
