For a while, it looked as though Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit against Disney over Black Widow‘s Premier Access release was set to cause an industry-wide shift in the way major studios compensated talent for how movies are released and distributed in the age of streaming.
Warner Bros. ended up slinging money at some seriously big names after failing to notify them that the entire 2021 lineup was heading to HBO Max on day one, while Emma Stone reportedly used the Johansson situation to negotiate a substantially improved payday for her Cruella sequel.
Fences have been mended between the longtime Natasha Romanoff and the Mouse House, though, to the extent that Kevin Feige teased he’ll be working with the two-time Academy Award nominee in the very near future on a Marvel Cinematic Universe project that has nothing to do with Black Widow at all.
Johansson hasn’t spoken publicly about the matter all that often, but she did say to the Associated Press that “it’s important in general to know your own worth and stand up yourself”. Disney tried to paint her as greedy by releasing a statement outlining that she’d already pocketed $20 million upfront for Black Widow, but at the end of the day the disagreement was largely based on principle above all else.
