Why Marvel Needs A Black Widow Movie

In Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 2, we were introduced to Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow), the top-secret, super Russian spy, and fans everywhere seemed to be pleased with the character. When she appeared in Marvel’s The Avengers, audiences got pieces of information about the Widow and her odd relationship with fellow Avenger Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton (Hawkeye) which everyone keeps in mind — unless you’ve read Marvel Now’s Secret Avengers issue #1, where readers got more info on Widow and Hawkeye’s past in Budapest, but questions still lay unanswered.

In Marvel’s latest installment, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, we dig even further into the Widow’s past with Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes (The Winter Soldier) as she would talk about what would seem like missing footage of flashbacks that should’ve been shown on screen. Currently, Marvel and Johansson herself keep giving out news about the Widow and her further adventures. Marvel recently explained to fans that Black Widow will play a big part in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, as the story will dig more into the spy’s past. In case anyone hasn’t noticed … how much more digging can we get? Marvel keeps feeding fans bits and pieces of Widow throughout all of the films featuring her, but refuses to give what fans have reportedly been requesting from both Marvel and Johansson: a Black Widow movie!

So you ask, how would a solo movie find any success, and who’s to say a busy woman like Johansson, who stars in a large amount of films, would have any interest? Here was Scarlett’s personal answer to that question when asked on the red carpet for the UK premiere of The Winter Soldier:

"If you want to see a Black Widow spin-off movie, then I want to see it, We’ll see. We will put the request into Marvel tomorrow."

She seems like she wants to see it just as bad as fanboys out there. She also stated in another interview when asked about her newly announced pregnancy and if it would interfere with the filming of future Marvel installments, and she refused to let this get in the way. This shows dedication to the role.

So what are the stories to be told? Try to follow here: when Marvel announced the upcoming Agent Carter TV series that is rumored to premiere later this year, it also revealed that Howard Stark will be in the show. Think back to Iron Man 2, where not only Black Widow was introduced, but Anton Vanko worked with Howard Stark — and as comic fans know, Vanko was the first Crimson Dynamo.

Great, now you ask, how is it connected? Well in the Black Widow movie, what if they were to start with a man named Ivan Petrovich? In the comics, he is Widow’s middle-aged surrogate father who raises her as an orphan. Petrovich has a son named Yuri who eventually becomes the fourth Crimson Dynamo. Iron Man 2 and Agent Carter could perfectly connect us to get a Black Widow movie by possibly touching more on Vanko and how he becomes the Dynamo.

A couple of other things they could touch on are finally getting us up to speed about Budapest and the full story on Widow’s interaction with the Winter Soldier. And once Marvel releases its Daredevil Netflix-exclusive series, they could also team up (Editor’s note: Widow and Daredevil also have a personal history in the comics, including living together in San Francisco). The possibilities are endless, with enough ideas lined up for sequels or even Widow’s own shot at having a series.

These are just a few out of many simple examples of unanswered questions that make all of the Widow fans go crazy thinking about how the perfect blueprints are already in place to truly make the character into what they build her up to be. Pair the movie (or TV series!) with a good director, and it won’t be a repeat of the Catwoman movie that made all studios fear the idea of a heroine in the leading role. Come on Marvel — we’re ready!