Thor 3 Director Wants To Make Black Widow Film

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Thor: Ragnarok Director Wants to Make a Black Widow Movie

Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi wants to make a Black Widow comedy movie in the MCU, starring Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff.

Taika Waititi would love to make a Black Widow comedy movie. The director has successfully reinvigorated interest in the character Thor (Chris Hemsworth) with his upcoming film, Thor: Ragnarok, which is currently the highest-rated Marvel Cinematic Universe movie ever released. And he's now interested in potentially providing his comedic chops to a Black Widow movie, starring Scarlett Johansson as the eponymous character.

Johansson made her debut as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, in Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2 in 2010. It didn't take long for Marvel Studios to begin talking about potentially giving the character her own solo movie, and fan interest in the spinoff only increased as time went on. However, Marvel wasn't interested in a female superhero movie at the time. And the franchise's first female-led superhero movie will be Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's 2019 film, Captain Marvel, starring Brie Larson as Carol Danvers. Of course, Johansson believes there's still a possibility for Black Widow to get her own movie. If it happens, Waititi could lead that production.

In an interview with io9 discussing his latest film, Thor: Ragnarok, Waititi revealed that he would be interested in making a Black Widow movie for Marvel when asked if he would like to take on other MCU character.

“In all honesty, I reckon I could probably bring something pretty unique to any of the franchises. So, I’d love to see Black Widow. [I’d like to see] Black Widow as something crazy and a bit funnier than we expect it to be. Because we know her story and it’s very sullen and very dark and her history is very dark. But! What’s the funny version of that? What’s the more entertaining version of that?”

Black Widow's story has been briefly hinted at throughout her appearances but audiences got their most in-depth look at her troubled past in a hallucination/flashback sequence in Joss Whedon's Avengers: Age of Ultron. As for why Waititi chose Black Widow over someone like her former S.H.I.E.L.D. partner, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), or the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), a character he already has experience directing, Waititi said:

“I really go for the underdog. [And] I think there’s a way in with any of the characters. You just have to find it and find what honors what’s already there with the source material but also brings it into a more entertaining form for the audience.”

At the moment, the MCU's first saga is scheduled to conclude with Anthony and Joe Russo's Avengers 4 in 2019, with the franchise branching off in a new direction after that. Considering that Black Widow is one of the shared universe's oldest characters, it's possible that she may not have a place in that future, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens until at least after Avengers: Infinity War releases next year.