Black Widow: A Scarlett Johansson Standalone Film & My Thoughts

     Last week Variety published an interview with Scarlett Johansson about her work with Planned Parenthood, some stuff about her political views on Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton, and a bit about her role in the Marvel Studios film franchises as Natasha "The Black Widow" Romanov.

THE INTERVIEW

   To begin here's the relevant portions of the interview:

Will there be a standalone Black Widow movie?
I would like for it to happen under the right circumstances. I think there’s a lot of opportunity to mine that story line. She’s got a really rich origins story. There’s a lot of places you can go — you can bring it back to Russia. You could explore the Widow program. There’s all kinds of stuff that you could do with it. You could really uncover the identity of who this person is, where she comes from and where she’s part of. 

So if it happens, will it be a prequel?
It’s a possibility. There’s plenty of back story. Or not. It could be something else. Where do the Avengers go? They are underground. What happens then? What happens after it all falls apart? There are so many ways you can go. I think it would just have to be very much like its own specific thing. It would have to have its own specific vibe. It would have been totally different than any of the other standalone films.

Are you still talking to Marvel about it?
Yeah, of course. I talked to them about it often. It would have to fit in the idea of where they want to go. I’m invested in that character. Marvel is greatly invested in that character. If I did it, I’d have to do it while I still actually want to wear a skin-tight catsuit. I don’t know how much longer that’s going to be. 

MY THOUGHTS

     I think it should be a film full of espionage, action, and intrigue.  Leave out the damn love triangle with Hulk/Banner that was so damned out of place in the Avengers: Age of Ultron.  Leave out the stupid sterility backstory.  Leave out the global destruction tales so many superhero movies lean too heavily upon.  Make it an intimate covert ops mission, a modern cold war narrative going on with lots of cloak and dagger.  It could easily be a political crime story with touches of her past and interactions with the Winter Soldier.  Or an entire secretive special ops sabotage mission taking place in a rogue state.

     There is immense potential for some truly great stories here.  Seriously, this is a case where I really want to see a Black Widow film with a high caliber take on the spy genre.  It's the same principle as when I wanted a Martin Scorsese movie featuring the Punisher.  It should be something handled by a creative team that would focus on perfecting the writing and directing above the cheap action thrills (that's not saying no action, just that it should be substance over spectacle).  Think of films like James Cameron's True Lies, Christopher McQuarrie's Mission Impossible or Jack Reacher, Doug Limon's The Bourne Identity or Edge of Tomorrow, or even the extremely underrated Guy Ritchie update of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.  

     In a long Q&A with Deadline, Marvel Studios' president Kevin Feige briefly discussed the possibility of this eventually happening.  They've currently got 9 more films lined up through the end of 2019, and 3 more currently untitled films planned in 2020, so there's definitely an opportunity for her to potentially get a film.

DEADLINE: You’ve got a bunch of characters in this movie from Falcon and War Machine and Black Widow and Hawkeye, who have so far guest starred in movies with another characters title above the fold. Is there one destined to get a solo movie down the line? 

FEIGE: Of the characters that you’ve just mentioned I would say certainly the one creatively and emotionally that we are most committing to doing is Black Widow.

     With Doctor Strange hitting theaters less than a month from now, Marvel will be opening the door for the metaphysical genre in their film universe, so why not continue on the path that Captain America: The Winter Soldier set and allow Black Widow to pave the way for a full-on spy film.  Scarlett Johansson is a tremendous actress, so give her something worthwhile to actually work with.  Marvel has a monstrous opportunity here to break into a genre that hasn't been done with superhero films- a true spy thriller.

     Source [ Variety ]