Is An All-Female Marvel Superhero Movie In The Future?
For years, fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been calling for a solo movie centered on Black Widow, the ass-kicking super spy played by Scarlett Johansson. And while there have been a lot of vague claims of support from the people in charge at Marvel, we've yet to see her suit up for her own film.
But now there may be a film on the horizon that focuses on all of the prominent women characters in the MCU, not just Black Widow. Read Marvel Studios president and mega-producer Kevin Feige's comments about the possibility of an all-female Marvel movie below.
io9 was at a recent press conference for Thor: Ragnarok, where Ragnarok actress Tessa Thompson – who plays the sword-wielding Valkyrie in that movie – told a story about how she led a charge that Valkyrie herself would have been proud of:
"Recently, I marched up with a couple of other women that work in Marvel and we went to Kevin, 'What about a movie with some female super heroes? Like all of them?'"
Feige jumped in to reveal what happened:
"It was a pretty amazing moment to be somewhere and have your shoulder get tapped and turn around every female hero we have is standing there going, 'How about it?' And I said, 'Yes.'"
Of course, Feige saying yes to a group of Marvel stars is different than officially announcing the movie with an intended release date. There have been plenty of opportunities for the studio to officially announce a Black Widow film, but for whatever reason, that hasn't happened yet. It's possible that Widow survives the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4 and gets her own movie in 2020, but if Feige and company could use a little more convincing that Johansson would be enough of a draw on her own, perhaps he'd be more willing to spread the responsibility on the capable shoulders of a few more MCU actresses.
At the press conference, Thompson explained that there was "precedent" for a women-only squad at Marvel in comics like Lady Liberators, about a team that originally consisted of Black Widow, the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Medusa, and was led by Valkyrie. I haven't seen Ragnarok yet so I'm not sure if Valkyrie survives that movie, but since Thompson was the one leading the charge here, it's a good bet she makes it out alive. So theoretically this film could star Thompson, Johansson, Evangeline Lilly (The Wasp), Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Pom Klementieff (Mantis), and maybe Cobie Smulders (S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill). Now we just need some superheroic screenwriter to come along and craft a script worthy of all of these kick-ass women.