Black Widow Title Film in Development

Marissa Tandon’17 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

In a recent interview, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige teased that a Black Widow title film is in development. Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), made her first appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Iron Man 2 as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. She starred alongside the Marvel heavyweights in The Avengers, and will be featured alongside Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) in the upcoming Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier.
Feige explained that Romanoff will be “coming to terms with her history” throughout this upcoming film. Black Widow will also have a large part in The Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, which begins filming at the end of March, and audiences will, according to Feige, learn more about Black Widow’s past in that film. Fiege went on to say that “The notion of exploring that even further in her own film would be great, and we have some development work with that.”
As exciting as this news is, fans may need to take this comment with a grain of salt. Marvel has greatly expanded their cinematic universe since the success of Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr., and in that time span, plenty of new titles have been classified as “in development,” such as Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Black Panther, Blade, and Ms. Marvel, yet those characters don’t seem to be anywhere close to hitting the big screen. “In development” at Marvel Studios simply means that there have been some concepts discussed.

However, if Marvel Studios does decide to give Black Widow her own title, the possibilities are endless. The Black Widow has a rich and dark history set out by the comics, and a film exploring those origins would be a step in the right direction for Marvel’s diversity. Black Widow being one of the front characters in The Avengers was a big step, bringing a female superhero into the team who could hold her own alongside the boys’ team.
Marvel Studios have been taking steps towards a more diverse representation of their superheroes; Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier will not only heavily feature Black Widow, but will also introduce The Falcon aka Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), the first black superhero in comics. If Marvel does make the move to give the Black Widow her own title, it will be a huge step for diversity in the boys club of superhero films on the big screen.
Hopefully with Black Widow’s presence becoming more pivotal in both Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier and The Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, Marvel will take a few steps beyond the “in development” stage to a full length feature title for their female superhero.