“We had been planning the conclusion for the Infinity Saga for the past five or six years, and Natasha’s journey within those films took the priority,” Feige explains. “The notion of breaking out for a stand-alone film that takes place in the past, for a character that we already knew and were already following, didn’t feel right.”
“I was like, I think I’m good,” Johansson admits. “If we [were] going to do this, it had to be creatively fulfilling. I’ve been working for such a long time, and I have to feel like I’m challenged. I don’t want to do the same thing that I’d already done before.”
What changed Scarlett’s mind was a meeting with Cate Shortland. “We just bonded over stories about trust and about intimacy and about women surviving,” Shortland says of that initial chat. “You didn’t have to be a superhero to identify with a woman who has had a really tough childhood and has survived and has a huge heart and helps other people.”
“When I looked at the past films, there’s a lot of sitting outside of the character, so that she is seen and kind of objectified,” Shortland adds. “Oftentimes we don’t really get to see who she is when she’s by herself — who she is when she takes off the action-hero facade.”
Much of Black Widow peels away that facade. Over the years, Marvel has sprinkled in cryptic allusions to Nat’s past — a reference to Budapest here, a Red Room flashback there — but the new film dives deeper. “A prequel that simply filled in the blanks of things you already know is not very exciting,” Feige says. “How does she get her Widow stingers for the first time? How did she learn to do a flip? That doesn’t matter.”
“I think this character’s strength really lies in her vulnerability and her acceptance of that,” she says. “She has emotional intelligence that has allowed her to survive without any real superpowers. She’s someone who is a problem-solver. She’s a pragmatic person. I think a lot of those qualities are inherently female.”
— Entertainment Weekly’s exclusive “Black Widow” cover story
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