Several sites have shared details of their 2019 visits to the set of Black Widow prior to the movie being delayed due to the pandemic, and some interesting tidbits have been unearthed from the cast interviews.
Collider asked star Scarlett Johansson about the sexualization of superheros in relation to how her character, Natasha Romanoff, has evolved over the years, and the actress recalled her MCU debut back in 2010's Iron Man 2.
"All of that is related to that move away from the kind of hyper-sexualization of this character and, I mean, you look back at Iron Man 2 and while it was really fun and had a lot of great moments in it, the character is so sexualized, you know? Really talked about like she’s a piece of something, like a possession or a thing or whatever — like a piece of ass, really. And Tony even refers to her as something like that at one point. What does he say?"
The interviewer (incorrectly) reminds Johansson that Stark said "I want some" (he actually says "I want one") during the training scene, but the gist is the same!
“'I want some,'” she continues. "Yeah, and at one point calls her a piece of meat and maybe at that time that actually felt like a compliment. You know what I mean? Because my thinking was different. Maybe I even would have, you know, my own self-worth was probably measured against that type of comment or, like a lot of young women, you come into your own and you understand your own self-worth. It’s changing now. Now people, young girls, are getting a much more positive message, but it’s been incredible to be a part of that shift and be able to come out the other side and be a part of that old story, but also progress. Evolve. I think it’s pretty cool."
We don't think Stark ever actually calls Natasha a piece of meat (unless there's a director's cut we don't know about?), but there's no denying that, aside from her one action scene near the end, Widow was primarily utilized as eye candy in the Marvel sequel. One could argue that this was true to the character to an extent (Romanoff counts on people underestimating her because of her looks), but either way, it's hard to argue that Black Widow evolved into a far more compelling and complex figure as the MCU progressed.
Back in March, Disney officially announced that Black Widow would debut on Disney+ Premier Access at the same time it hits theaters. The Marvel prequel was set for a theatrical release on May 7 before being pushed back to July 9, and will now be made available to Disney+ subscribers for an extra $30.
Black Widow finds Natasha Romanoff "confronting the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger. Joining Johansson in the new feature film are Florence Pugh as Yelena, David Harbour as Alexei/The Red Guardian, and Rachel Weisz as Melina."
Do you guys plan on checking out Black Widow in theaters or on Disney+? Let us know in the usual place.