After spending a decade waiting for Marvel hero Natasha Romanoff to star in her own movie, Scarlett Johansson was finally promoted from supporting cast to starring role in the upcoming Black Widow movie.
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, the actress reveals she had been waiting for Marvel boss Kevin Feige to green-light a solo film since The Avengers rocked the box office in 2012.
“I have a memory — because we were all drinking a lot of red wine, this maybe is a real memory or a red wine memory, I’m not sure, but I think Kevin Feige remembers it too — we were celebrating the press tour of the first Avengers movie,” the Oscar nominee recalled.
“We were all having a good old time and Feige and I sat across from each other at a table and he broached it and we started just talking about what it could be [and] the possibility of a standalone,” Johansson continued.
Finally, the good news came, of which the Jojo Rabbit star remarked, “I was waiting on the phone for about 10 years just waiting for Kevin Feige. Just hold music for 10 years.”
Johansson, 36, noted that she is glad the project took time to come into fruition and admitted, had the ball started rolling then, the standalone film “would have been a very different movie than the one that we’re making now.”
Black Widow takes place after the events of Captain America: Civil War — as Black Widow sacrificed herself in Avengers: Endgame.
Johansson says she’s appreciates how Natasha’s story ended, adding, “It made so much sense that she would sacrifice herself not just for the greater good of humanity but actually for her friends.”
Black Widow backflips into theaters and on Disney+ Premiere Access on July 9.
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