In the grand scheme of things, the MTV Movie & TV Awards is arguably the least important ceremony on the calendar that nobody takes particularly seriously or even views as remotely important, but it’s at least notable for being one of the few shows where the winners are decided by fans.
This year’s edition takes place on Sunday, with MTV announcing that Scarlett Johansson will receive the Generation Award. The criteria to win has never been disclosed and still remains more than a little murky to this day, but it appears to be based largely on star power given that previous recipients include Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Adam Sander, Robert Downey Jr., Sandra Bullock, Johnny Depp, Chris Pratt and more, although the Fast & Furious franchise did somewhat bizarrely win in 2017.
Regardless of whether or not you believe Johansson can genuinely be named as a generational icon, you can’t deny either her talent or popularity. Her recurring role as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Natasha Romanoff has seen her become one of the highest-paid actresses in the industry that can command a paycheck of $15 million and above, while she’s also nabbed six Golden Globe nominations and in 2020 became just the twelfth star to land two Academy Award nods for acting in the same year thanks to Jojo Rabbit and Marriage Story.
Next up for the 36 year-old is of course the long delayed Black Widow, the solo blockbuster that’s been a decade in the making and then found itself delayed by fourteen months as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. Before the MCU’s feature-length Phase Four kickoff even arrives, though, Scarlett Johansson will riding high as this year’s Generation Award winner.