BLACK WIDOW Star Scarlett Johansson Explains Why Shooting 2012's THE AVENGERS Felt Like "A Big Mess"

BLACK WIDOW Star Scarlett Johansson Explains Why Shooting 2012's THE AVENGERS Felt Like "A Big Mess"

The Avengers was considered a huge gamble for Marvel Studios in 2012, but ended up being the MCU's biggest hit at the time. Now, Scarlett Johansson reflects on the unique experience of shooting the movie.

By JoshWilding - May 17, 2025 02:05 AM EST
Filed Under: Avengers

Before The Avengers was released in 2012, no one thought it would work. After all, how could you take superheroes from such vastly different franchises and bring them together for a team-up movie? It seemed impossible and was a huge gamble for Marvel Studios. 

With Joss Whedon, a largely untested blockbuster filmmaker, at the helm, The Avengers—titled Avengers Assemble in the UK—could have killed the MCU as we know it. Instead, it received glowing reviews and grossed $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office, putting Marvel Studios on an unforgettable streak of success. 

Talking in a new career retrospective, Scarlett Johansson admitted that she and the rest of the cast also had their doubts about assembling Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

"When we made the first ‘Avengers’ none of us knew what the potential would be," the actor said. "'Iron Man' was massively successful. It was huge. It built the studio of Marvel. 'Iron Man 2' was also successful. There was 'Thor,' but that character felt like it was from a completely different universe. It was such a different tone from the 'Iron Man' movies. The 'Captain America' movie had its own identity as well."

"When you added the characters all together, plus Hulk and Hawkeye, it just felt like a big mess to be honest. Even on the set it felt crazy. We all looked insane. What are we doing?" Johansson recalled. "I don’t think anybody knew if it was going to work or not besides Kevin Feige and Joss Whedon. The cast had blind faith in them."

However, when the cast gathered to film that iconic shot of The Avengers standing side-by-side in New York, it sounds like everyone realised they had something special on their hands. 

"I remember the scene where we all are in that 360 of the characters together," she continued. "That was the moment where we all thought this maybe could work. It felt powerful. When we watched the playback it looked really cool, but so much of it didn’t feel cool when we were shooting it. We were young. We were having such a great time. We became such great friends. It was a blast."

The Avengers spawned a sequel with Avengers: Age of Ultron, with the Russo Brothers later picking up where Whedon left off by helming Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame

Johansson bid farewell to Natasha Romanoff with 2021's Black Widow movie and recently dismissed the possibility of returning to the MCU.

You can hear more from the actor in the player below. 

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TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 5/17/2025, 3:12 AM
The true birth of the MCU…

User Comment Image

That first movie is still special imo with some truly great character interactions & moments.
Mercwitham0uth
Mercwitham0uth - 5/17/2025, 3:44 AM
Understandable.

A lot of people didn't think this was going to work with the combination of tech, god, magic, aliens, etc.

When it released, it proved doubters wrong.
Vigor
Vigor - 5/17/2025, 7:29 AM
@Mercwitham0uth - it's meta too. Because even the council nick fury was answering to, didn't think this group would work
UncleHarm1
UncleHarm1 - 5/17/2025, 10:16 AM
@Mercwitham0uth - I remember at the time the first solo movies were pretty successful, mostly Iron Man, but not like a cultural necessity. Then Avengers came along and suddenly my grandparents wanted to ask me about the purple guy
MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 5/17/2025, 4:29 AM
Special times. One of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had at the movie theater. It just felt grand. It’s really the reason why I’m on this site. I was heavy on Screen Rant at the time and really needed to find people to talk about this movie with. I was too scared to make an account back then but that’s another story.
Mercwitham0uth
Mercwitham0uth - 5/17/2025, 4:40 AM
@MyCoolYoung - I remember seeing Avenger at a matinee on the premiere. Lot's of people, myself included, took the day off work to see it. That theatre was packed.
MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 5/17/2025, 5:08 AM
@Mercwitham0uth - Screen Rant said I shouldn't miss this one in IMAX 3D. I was so skeptical because I saw the first Avatar movie in IMAX 3D and was disappointed, but I did it and I've barely missed a Thursday IMAX showing since 2012 for a comic book movie.
Batmangina
Batmangina - 5/17/2025, 6:58 AM
The 360 shot brought my inner 10 year old to tears and [frick] everyone at Disney for ruining it.

I hope they all end up sacking groceries.
DocSpock
DocSpock - 5/17/2025, 7:38 AM
@Batmangina -

Damn right. But not MY groceries.

Batmangina
Batmangina - 5/17/2025, 7:48 AM
@DocSpock - User Comment Image
dragon316
dragon316 - 5/17/2025, 8:50 AM
@Batmangina - that was great shot of team need moments like that in movies not enough 360 shots in action movies try it in horror that be big change
Batmangina
Batmangina - 5/17/2025, 7:22 PM
@dragon316 - One of the things that Joss Whedon understood was comic book imagery - in Avengers and AOU there were several Bronze Age covers literally come to life. The Russos continued it in Civil War at the German airport when the two sides face off on the runway.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 5/17/2025, 7:22 AM
This is exactly why it's so [frick]ing dumb when people say The Batman is a different tone to James Gunn's Superman and therefore can never be a part of that shared universe.

Of course it can. AND they could continue to makes sequels that don't have any references to the larger universe.
Superspecialawesomeguy
Superspecialawesomeguy - 5/17/2025, 9:02 AM
@ObserverIO - I think it's less about the tone and more the fact that Reeves's Batman is a barely compentent detective that had trouble fighting a group of Riddler's loser squad and is so low-tech that he makes Nolan Batman look like [frick]ing Iron Man in comparison imo.

No way would he be able to hang with the DCU's Superman.

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ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 5/17/2025, 1:40 PM
@Superspecialawesomeguy - True but you could also say that Tony Stark struggled to take down his father's partner, his father's enemy's son and a disgruntled ex-associate when all they had was technology like he had, then he's suddenly taking down aliens with all-powerful magic gems.
Superspecialawesomeguy
Superspecialawesomeguy - 5/17/2025, 7:33 PM
@ObserverIO - "then he's suddenly taking down aliens with all-powerful magic gems."

I think taking down is a strong term to say the least.

User Comment Image
dragon316
dragon316 - 5/17/2025, 8:48 AM
Felt thor had same tone with Ironman it was captain America had different tone more serious less comedy almost no comedy
MisterBones
MisterBones - 5/17/2025, 10:08 AM
Avengers 2012 is timeless. Seeing that in theaters was monumental. Not sure if that feeling can ever be replicated; Endgame and IW aside
RolandD
RolandD - 5/17/2025, 10:27 AM
@MisterBones - 2 out of three avengers movies replicated it so it seems a bit much to put Endgame and Infinity War to the side. I would actually say that it’s three out of four since Civil War was just about an Avengers movie that strongly featured Captain America and I would say that it replicated the magic of the first movie. Avengers does have one special thing about it because it was the first. Of course, this is all in my opinion.
MisterBones
MisterBones - 5/17/2025, 11:02 AM
@RolandD - I think I meant moreso because it was the first of its kind. And IW and Endgame were also sort of the first of their kind being this bombastic superhero films that were grander than Avengers 1.
RolandD
RolandD - 5/17/2025, 1:23 PM
@MisterBones - Of course. Great point.
Radders
Radders - 5/19/2025, 9:00 AM
The first Avengers film is brilliant, understands the characters and gives the audience and fans what they wanted to see - plus so many quotable lines.

Weedon at his best

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