Hi, everyone. I'm Em, and welcome to Verbal Diorama, episode 308, Black Widow. This is the podcast that's all about the history and legacy of movies you know and movies you don't. That has red in her ledger and she'd like to wipe it out. But can you wipe out that much red? Welcome to Verbal Diorama. Whether you are a brand-new listener to this podcast, whether you are a regular returning listener, thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for choosing to listen to this podcast. I am, as always, so happy to have you here for the history and Legacy of Black Widow. And if you are a regular returning listener, thank you so much for continuing to listen to and support this podcast. Even if you've only been here for a little bit, whether you've been here for the last six years and over 300 episodes, thank you so much for your support. It genuinely means so much to have you come back to this podcast and hopefully enjoy this podcast enough for you to come back to this podcast. And of course, having over 300 episodes of a film history podcast means that if I need to take a break, I can rely on some of the archive to fill in the gap. And that's why the archival Superman episodes have been on the feed for the last couple of weeks. Because I was due to take a week off and then I started to feel a bit poorly so I decided to take another week. But luckily I've got plenty of old episodes in the arsenal to kind of bring out and introduce to people who maybe haven't listened to those episodes. Previous to the Superman episode was Batman and Robin, which has honestly just done so remarkably well. People love the Joel Schumacher Batmans and I'm so here for it. I wish we could have had more Joel Schumacher Batmans. We didn't know. But what we do have is a beautiful time capsule of how our superhero movies could have been had it all been different. But I am back after a couple of weeks off and I'm back with more superheroes on purpose because I re watched Black Widow a couple of months ago and I liked it so much more than I did the first time I saw. Feels a little like the black sheep of the MCU in so many ways. A movie made after it should have been, but also a movie that has become more important as time has progressed. In 2010, Scarlett Johansson brought Natasha Romanoff to life in Iron Man 2. Since then, she's appeared in seven different Marvel movies, more than any other Avenger except Robert Downey Jr's Iron man and Chris Evans's Captain America. Both of those characters have had three solo films, with Cap technically now having four. Since Sam Wilson is the new Captain America in addition to screen time, Black Widow is more than just the token woman in the Avengers. Natasha was the soul of the MCU, a character who delved into her own chequered past, a true pioneer of redemption, carrying the weight of her own sin and her previous actions. Despite all of that, we didn't get a Black Widow solo movie. Fans saw the value of Natasha beyond her skin, tight catsuits and crushing thighs. And despite a few issues with her storylines over the years, yes, I'm predominantly looking at you. Age of Ultron, female representation within the wider MCU was getting better. But we still didn't get another female hero till 2014 when Gamora showed up. And still the Black Widow solo movie never came until 2021. After the character had sacrificed herself to save humanity in 2019's Endgame, Natasha finally wiped out the red in her ledger. But the question remains, why didn't we get a solo Black Widow movie during the peak of the MCU? Why did she? And we have to wait 11 years? And once she got her solo movie, Scarlett Johansson sued Disney. Don't worry, they're friends again. Now. Here's the trailer for Black Widow.

Set between the events of Captain Civil War and Avengers Infinity War, Natasha Romanov is a fugitive for violating the Sokovia Accords and flees to a safe house in Norway, aided by Rick Mason, who gives her mail from her safe house in Budapest. When Natasha is attacked by an unknown assailant who can replicate her every move, she realizes that the attacker wants something in her mail. She escapes with vials of red gas sent to her by her sister Yelena. Going back to Budapest, she finds Yelena, who was previously under the control of Dreykov, a man Natasha thought long dead who runs the Black Widow program. The same program she escaped from. Dreykov is kidnapping and brainwashing young girls and women with the gas in those vials. And together, Natasha and Yelena, along with their adoptive parents, must destroy the Red Room once and for all. Let's run through the cast. We have Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanov, AKA Black Widow. Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov, AKA Red Guardian Ot Fagbenli as Rick Mason, Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov, AKA Taskmaster William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross Ray Winston as Dreykov, and Rachel Weisz as Melina Vostokoff. Black Widow has a screenplay by Eric Pearson, story by Jack Schaefer and Ned Benson, was directed by Kate Shortland, and was based on the Marvel Comics. The character of Black Widow was first introduced into the MCU in Iron Man 2 in 2010, posing as Stark employee Natalie Rushman. Natasha Romanov, or Natalia Alionovna Romanova, to give her her canonical full name, was an expert spy trained in the Red Room in Russia as a child assassin, later recruited and defected to the United States working for SHIELD alongside her closest friend Clint Barton. Natasha not only became the only female founding member of the Avengers, her ongoing treatment within the MCU was both widely praised and and widely criticized for several reasons. The character of Black Widow first appeared in Tales of suspense number 52 in 1964 as a villain for Iron man, created by Stan Lee, Don Rico, and Don Heck, but not really looking like the Black Widow. We now know this Black Widow was a seductress, only spying on Tony Stark for the Soviet government. Despite that initial appearance as an enemy, the character was reformed as a hero in The Avengers number 30 in 1960 after appearing in previous issues and switching sides after her newfound love for Hawkeye fixed her Soviet brainwashing. The most significant aspect of her origin involves the Red Room, a secret Soviet training facility. According to her backstory, Natasha was taken as a child and subjected to intensive training in espionage, combat, and assassination. The program was designed to create perfect female operatives, with Natasha being one of their most successful graduates. In the comics, Natasha received a version of the Super Soldier Serum similar to what created Captain America, which slowed her aging process and enhanced her physical capabilities. This explains how she could remain active for decades, having allegedly been active Since World War II in some versions of her history. Yelena Belova debuted in Inhumans vol.2.5 in March 1999 and appeared fully in the miniseries Black Widow in 1999 as the second incarnation of the Black Widow after Natasha Romanoff. Canonically, Natasha and Yelena were not sisters and actually didn't get on all that well. Yelena Belova would also transform into a version of the Super Adaptoid, a human machine hybrid that can copy the powers of the New Avengers. Natasha, as a comic book hero with no obvious powers except for being smart, strong and capable, meant she had all the attributes needed for a live action version of her character. But her appearance in the MCU wasn't the first time the character of Natasha Romanoff was going to appear on the big screen in the early 2000s, X Men and Spider man had proven there was a market for big screen comic book adaptations starring a variety of characters, as well as the Bourne Identity and Mission Impossible series, showing that spy movies were popular. And in 2004, Lionsgate Entertainment was granted a license by Marvel Enterprises to produce and distribute theatrical films on two specific Marvel characters. Lionsgate had already acquired artisan entertainment in 2003, and with that had acquired the Punisher, which had a midi version due out in April 2004, starring Thomas Jane and John Travolta. So they had the Punisher on their books already, but now they also had Danny Rand, AKA Iron Fist, and the Soviet Union's premier spy, Natasha Romanoff, AKA Black Widow. The Punisher was a financial and critical disappointment, and the planned sequel instead became the reboot Punisher Warzone, with Ray Stevenson replacing Thomas Jane. But they had high hopes for Black Widow, which would require less flashy special effects than most comic book adaptations, and could remain grounded whilst also capitalizing on a sector of the market that was mostly untouched at the time. Women. In April 2004, David Hayter was announced as the writer and director of a Black Widow movie with Marvel Studios Avi Arad producing. Hayter had previously worked on the X Men films and was known for his work on video game adaptations. And most importantly, he was a huge fan of the character, even naming his baby daughter born in 2004, Black Widow, a kid. She's actually named Natasha, but she's named Natasha after the character. Between 2003 and 2006, when he finished his final draft, several female led action movies came out, including Underworld, Kill Bill, and most importantly, Catwoman, Elektra and Aeon Flux. Catwoman and Elektra were both comic book movies, and I'm going to come back to both of them later. But Aeon Flux was the main culprit in 2005 for sinking Lionsgate's Black Widow movie. Fearing a quote unquote action chick bomb, Lionsgate dropped Black Widow in 2006, which was going to be a contemporary realistic espionage adventure set in Kazakhstan. Later, Marvel and Hayter did attempt to sell it to other studios, but Hayter felt no one was taking the character seriously. Hayter wouldn't have to wait very long to see the character in live action, despite his lack of involvement. And then Iron man, that's definitely coming to a future episode. But Iron Man 2 went into development straight after the success of iron man in 2008, and lo and behold, Black Widow was included as part of the cast. And in 2009 Marvel started talks with Emily Blunt, Jon Favreau's first choice to play the character. However, she was unable to take it due to commitments to her role in Gulliver's Travels. Meanwhile, Scarlett Johansson had met with Jon Favreau and Kevin Feige a year before. Pre production even started on Iron Man 2 about roles in the forthcoming MCU, one of them being Black Widow, another being the Scarlet Witch. So when Favreau called Johansson in for a meeting, she dyed her hair red to match Black Widow in the comics, mostly to experiment with the colour, but also hopeful that Favreau would appreciate the sentiment. It turns out that he did, and Johansson felt the Black Widow character resonated with her as a superhero but also as a human being. She admitted to freaking out when she saw the character's iconic black catsuit and trained hard with trainers on stunts and strength training and retrospectively in publicity for the eventual Black Widow movie. She'd also comment on the sexualized way Black Widow was introduced into the MCU and how they attempted to evolve her beyond that. In September 2010, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said that discussions with Johansson had already taken place regarding a Black Widow standalone film, but Marvel's focus was on the crossover film The Avengers in 2012. Throughout the 2000 and tens, Johansson appeared in Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Captain the Winter Soldier, Age of Ultron, Captain Civil War, Infinity War and Endgame. And it's safe to say that no one at Marvel Studios anticipated how popular Black Widow would become with audiences after the release of Age of Ultron. Johansson revealed that the number of films on her contract had been adjusted since she first signed to match the demand of the character. By the time 2014 rolled around, a treatment had been written for a Black Widow movie by Guardians of the Galaxy writer Nicole Perlman. David Hayter expressed a wish to revive the project he was so passionate about with Marvel, and Kevin Feige was alluding to the fact that the studio would love to see the character explored further. But back to Catwoman and Elektra and a leaked 2014 email purportedly from Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter to Michael Linton, Sony's CEO, following up on a phone call between the pair. Its subject was female movies and it's dated 7 August 2014 at 5:32am and it reads quote Michael, as we discussed on the phone. Below are just a few examples. There are more. Thanks Ike. 1. Elektra Marvel Very bad idea and the end result was very, very bad. 2. Catwoman WBDC Catwoman was one of the most important female characters within the Batman franchise. This film was a disaster. 3. Supergirl DC Supergirl was one of the most important female superhero in Superman franchise. This movie came out in 1984 and did $14 million total domestic with opening weekend of $5.5 million. Again, another disaster. Best Ike unquote. Kevin Feige all but directly addressed Perlmutter's emails in a 2014 interview with Comic Book Resources saying quote, I very much believe that it's unfair to say people don't want to see movies with female heroes, then missed five movies that were not very good and they don't mention Hunger Games, Frozen, Divergent, you can go back to Kill Bill or Aliens. These are all female led movies. It can certainly be done. Ike Perlmutter believed female superheroes didn't sell and he had considerable power. As then CEO of Marvel Entertainment, Perlmutter served as the head of Marvel through its acquisition by Disney in 2009 and oversaw development on every film from Iron man to Age of Ultron. In 2015, Disney reorganized leadership so studio president Kevin Feige would report directly to the Walt Disney Studios chairperson and not Perlmutter. The restructuring was reportedly due to Feige's frustration of working with Perlmutter and his outdated opinions about casting budgets and merchandising, as well as alleged comments and actions by Perlmutter that were sexist and racist in nature. It's no surprise that Perlmutter was a supporter of the whatsit Dictator in Chief. I think you know who I'm talking about. Perlmutter's sidelining coincided with a notable increase in Marvel Studios focus on diversity and inclusiveness. This would lead to the studio making groundbreaking films like Black Panther in 2018, which would never have been made under Perlmutter and Captain Marvel, the studio's first female led movie in 2019, which are two of the highest grossing movies in the entire franchise purely because finally we got a black superhero and a female superhero from the biggest studio in the world. Throughout Perlmutter's leadership, Marvel kept Natasha Romanoff out of Avengers merchandise. Her merchandise was a fraction of what existed for her male counterparts. She had none. For her debut In Iron Man 2, she did get an action figure for the Avengers, but of the 88 official age of Ultron products, she was only available on 6. She was infamously replaced from one of her most badass scenes in Age of Ultron, riding her motorcycle through South Korea on the toy version of the bike with Captain America. And this isn't just a Black Widow thing, because Gamora was missing from Guardians Toys too. A Trump supporter being a misogynist? Surely not. In 2019, Perlmutter lost further power when Feige was promoted to CCO of Marvel Studios, putting him in control of Marvel TV and Media, which Perlmutter formally oversaw. Perlmutter was eventually fired from the company in 2023, but it's not really just Ike Perlmutter to blame, because the vision of the MCU also didn't seem to include anything other than Natasha being a supporting part to other people's stories, such as undoubtedly her best role in Captain America, the Winter Soldier. Natasha was used to bring other characters into stories like meeting Bruce Banner in the Avengers, which is also standout, and meeting t' Challa in Captain Civil War. With the Infinity Saga nearing its end, it made more sense to go to Wakanda than it did to explore Natasha. And then we got Captain Marvel as the first female led movie in the mcu again because it served the greater purpose of the MCU to introduce Carol at that time and I love that movie so I have no complaints. But fans were naturally unhappy that a fan favorite was being sidelined, and despite both Feige and Johansson suggesting a movie for Black Widow was coming throughout the 2010s when they were asked, it wasn't until October 2017 that the ball really started rolling when Marvel began meeting with potential writers, including Jessica Gough, who would go on to create and write the Disney plus series she Hulk Attorney at Law. Her pitch for a Black Widow movie heavily featured she Hulk as a supporting character. Feige also met with Jack Schaefer and she was hired in December 2017. One other thing that the MCU hadn't been the best with, apart from highlighting female stars, was hiring female directors like ever. At that point, Anna Bowden had been hired to be a co director for Captain Marvel, but for Black Widow, Marvel focused on finding a sole female director and met with over 65, including Chloe Zhao, who would go on to direct Eternals, Amma Asante, Coralie Fargate, Kimberly Pierce, Maggie Betts, Lynn Shelton and Lucretia Martell. Scarlett Johansson had approached Kate Shortland personally about potentially directing the movie after seeing her film. Law. Shortland was hired in July 2018. Johansson was also executively producing Black Widow, the first time any Avenger had executively produced their own solo film in the mcu. Chris Hemsworth executively produced Love and Thunder a year later in 2022. Ned Benson was hired in February 2019 to rewrite the script and Eric Pearson was hired during pre production to rewrite it again. Pearson received the sole screenplay credit, with Benson and Schaefer receiving story credits. The movie was due to be set after civil war and find Natasha alone with the other Avengers scattered or incarcerated and no longer tied to The Avengers or S.H.I.E.L.D. the main source of inspiration was the TV show the Americans, set during the Cold War about an undercover Russian spy family living in a Washington D.C. suburb. This setup would introduce Natasha as a child living in the Midwestern United States with her quote unquote family, her mother, father and her younger sister Yelena posing as a traditional all American family until they steal SHIELD intel and have to suddenly flee to Cuba with the young girls separated and forced to the Red Room for training as widows, training that most little girls fail at and are subsequently killed. It is a dark opening to the movie, which isn't that surprising when you have Natasha's inherent darkness and her shame at her past. Marvel and Pierson had heated conversations about how dark Natasha's story could be, but Pearson successfully argued the case to show Dreykov's daughter, first mentioned by Loki in the Avengers as a primary source of pain and regret for Natasha, and while also fleshing out the Budapest story that both Clint Barton and Natasha had frequently mentioned. For Natasha's sister, it made sense for this to be Yelena Belova, a longtime associate of Black Widow in the comics, with a complex antagonistic relationship that softened as the characters developed a grudging respect for each other and later stories explored their shared trauma as survivors of the Red Room. Yelena's character was used to explore themes around what Natasha might have become if she hadn't defected. She represented both Natasha's past and an alternate path, someone who initially embraced the Red Room's ideology rather than rejecting it. But fundamentally, both Natasha and Yelena lost their innocence, with Yelena suffering more for it for being younger when she was taken from the only family she'd ever known. Now, if you think creating a comic book character makes you super wealthy once they star in a big Marvel movie, you'd be wrong. To use the character of Yelena, Marvel had to pay her creators, writer Devin Grayson and artist JG Jones, who had both signed special character agreement deals $25,000 for Yelena's use in a theatrical film appearance. However, buried within the document's small print was language that granted Marvel broad discretion to dramatically lower payments, leading to Marvel only paying them $5,000. It was only after Grayson went to the press that Marvel agreed to pay her the remaining $7,500 it owed her. And if you don't sign an agreement, you don't get paid at all. It's why many artists and writers go down the indie route, because they actually get better returns and more creative control that way than they do with big companies like Marvel and dc. Marvel offered the role of Yelena to Saoirse Ronan, who passed, but then they saw Fighting with My Family, which is episode 248 of this podcast, and Florence Pugh was receiving rave reviews. And isn't that just an apt title for the familial relationships in this movie too? Pugh was cast in April 2019 alongside David Harbour, Rachel Weiss and O.T. fagbenley. Also cast in the movie was the then 12 year old Eva Anderson, daughter of Milla Jovovich and director Paul W.S. anderson as the young Natasha. Anderson is a fluent Russian speaker, which would come in handy with the scenes filmed in Russian. Taskmaster was included in early versions of the script as a villain, the Tony Masters version from the comic, but this was changed to be Antonia Drakov to fit the narrative that Dreykov subdues and controls all women, including his daughter, long thought dead by Natasha. Bond girl Olga Kurylenko was cast as Antonia Dreykov with her father Dreykov, played by Ray Winston. Winston would call the experience soul destroying and after some negative feedback on his performance, he actually wanted to leave the production and have his role recast. However, contractual obligations meant that he had to stick around for reshoots. Principal photography started on 28 May 2019 in Norway, moved to Pinewood Studios here in the UK in June 2019, then on location in Surrey in July, before moving to Georgia in the US in September and then to Morocco in October. Filming lasted for 87 days and wrapped on 6 October 2019, with a planned release in 2020. Yes, 2020 strikes again. Anyway, before we talk about 2020, let's segue into something a lot nicer to talk about, which is the obligatory Keanu reference of this episode. And if you don't know what that is, it's where I link the movie that I'm featuring with Keanu Reeves. And for a long time Keanu was fan casted for the role of taskmaster in the MCU, and in 2019 Kevin Feige mentioned in an interview that he'd met with Reeves with a view to discuss a role in a Marvel project. So there was some speculation among fans that the stars had aligned and Keanu was indeed Taskmaster. But he wasn't, and he's one of very few actors who still haven't been involved with the studio in any way, shape or form, but who knows, maybe soon. Let's move on to the music though, because Alexandre Desplat was originally announced to be composing the score, but he was replaced in post production by Lorne Balfe. He wrote an original piece in the style of Russian folk music that he used to develop the rest of Natasha's motifs. As COVID lockdowns were affecting post production, studio recording sessions also began to shut down, but Balfe managed to get the recordings completed on time. Black Widow is also only one of few Marvel movies that has a pre credits introduction to set up the childhoods of Natasha and Yelena, and it includes a title design by Emmy nominated design lab Perception. The team compiled old photographs, created documents and directed live action footage to chronicle Natasha's past in the Widow program. While they shot the footage at 8K high resolution, they used a series of custom digital and analog methods to match the aesthetics of 8 millimeter film, 90s digital video and VHS set to a cover of Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit by thinkapanga featuring Marlia J, which was suggested by Perception. It is raw, gritty and intentionally somber. This is not your average MCU movie. This one is set on earth with real people doing nasty real people stuff. And I really love that cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit as well. I think it suits the movie absolutely perfectly so Black Widow was originally scheduled for release in May 2020, which for obvious Covid based reasons did not go ahead. Disney retained the May 2020 release date despite other big movies like no Time to Die, shifting theirs early on in the pandemic. Disney kept that May 2020 release date up until early March 2020, but then cinemas across the US started closing their doors and Disney removed Black Widow from its May 2020 release slot. They then rescheduled it for November 2020 and shifted other Phase 4 movies back to accommodate the change in schedule. In September 2020, with COVID still raging across the world, Disney pushed the release back again to May 2021, also pushing Shang Chi back. For reasons I'll come to, Black Widow had to have a theatrical release, but Covid was making the situation increasingly difficult. In late March 2021, Disney announced Black Widow was moving dates again to 9 July 2021 and announced that it would be released simultaneously in theaters and on Disney with premier access. To accommodate, quote the evolving preferences of audiences, several studios had started experimenting with simultaneous theatrical and streaming releases, and during that year Disney released some of its planned but postponed 2020 releases like Mulan and Raya and the Last Dragon via Disney Premiere Access, with subscribers paying an additional $30 a film to stream the movie at home. But in July 2021, Scarlett Johansson filed a lawsuit against Disney over breach of contract, alleging that the studio broke its agreement with her when they decided to release Black Widow simultaneously in theaters and on Disney plus. Court documents filed by Johansson detailed that the deal guaranteed an exclusive theatrical release and that her salary for the film was largely tied to box office performance. Disney issued a statement in response to the suit saying it had no merit whatsoever and that Johansson had shown a, quote, callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effect of the COVID 19 pandemic, unquote, that the company claimed they had fully complied with Johansson's contract and that the Disney plus Premiere Access release of the film had significantly enhanced her ability to earn additional compensation beyond the $20 million she had already received. In response, her agent, Brian Lord, fired back, condemning Disney's response as, quote, shamelessly and falsely accusing Ms. Johansson of being insensitive to the global COVID pandemic, unquote, and accusing the company of leaving artistic and financial partners out of their streaming profits, and denounced the disclosure of Johansson's $20 million earnings as, quote, an attempt to weaponize her success as an artist and businesswoman, as if that was something she should be ashamed of, unquote. Disney were firmly between a rock and a hard place, though, as their aggressive post endgame scheduling meant the TV series Hawkeye was due to premiere, which also featured Florence Pugh's Yelena and followed on from the story of Black Widow. And they had already delayed Black Widow a year after Disney filed a motion to move the lawsuit to arbitration in August 2021. Johansson and Disney reached a settlement over the lawsuit a month later, and terms of the settlement were not disclosed. The settlement came after Disney chose to give theatrical only releases to subsequent 2021 films, following the box office success of Shang Chi and Free Guy, which both received exclusive theatrical windows when initially released. Black Widow was released on 7th July 2021 in cinemas worldwide and on 9th July 2021 in the US and also simultaneously on Disney Plus. It went to number one in its first week in cinemas. Movies were being released but not often, and Black Widow was the only major studio release that week because no other studio would want their movie taking on an MCU movie. Black Widow was out at the Same Time as F9, the Fast Saga, the Boss Baby 2, the Forever Purge, A Quiet Place Part 2 and Cruella the following week Black Widow was dethroned from its number one spot by Space Jam. A new legacy. And it's unfortunate really, because now Black Widow is often mentioned when you hear talk of Marvel's lowest grossing movies. And that's not untrue. It is one of the lowest. But other Marvel movies didn't come out during a pandemic. Black Widow was the first movie of Phase 4 and the first to come out during COVID It was followed by Shang Chi and Eternals, which only earned 50 and 20 million dollars more respectively. And they didn't have a simultaneous release on Disney. In fact, both had an exclusive 45 day release in cinemas. Black Widow actually had the most ticket Pre sales of 2021. It grossed $183.7 million domestically in the US and $196.1 million internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $379.8 million. But that doesn't take into account the Disney Plus Premier Access. It was the first film that Disney revealed. Premier Access revenue for the film's opening weekend earned $226.2 million globally, which include $80.4 million at the domestic box office, $78.8 million at the international box office, and $67 million in Disney Plus Premier Access global revenue. When you take the Disney Plus Premier Access into account, Black Widow actually has the third largest opening for an MCU origin movie behind Black Panther and Captain Marvel. It also became the third most pirated film of the pandemic, with over 20 million pirated views. And it's estimated that this level of piracy cost Disney Approximately $600 million of lost revenue from this movie. So in a slightly different time period, in a slightly different version of this universe, with no Covid or a slightly different version of this movie that maybe came out several years earlier, this movie could have been absolutely huge for Marvel and could have made a hell of a lot of money. But circumstances Black Widow has a score on rotten tomatoes of 79% with the critical consensus reading. Black Widow's deeper themes are drowned out in all the action, but it remains a solidly entertaining standalone adventure that's rounded out by a stellar supporting cast. Critics praised Johansson and Pugh as well as its gritty tone and the fact it diversifies the MCU with a high octane espionage thriller. Black Widow was also one of 28 films that received the reframe stamp for 2021, which is awarded by the Gender Equality Coalition Reframe for films that are proven to have gender balanced hiring on how Many women are involved in a production in front of and behind the camera. Other movies under the Disney umbrella awarded that year included Cruella, Encanto and Eternals. While Natasha's story is over and her sacrifice in Endgame still poignant, the MCU moves on because Yelena is still around. And Yelena is still dealing with her own trauma after losing her family, becoming a mind controlled assassin, finding her sister, getting blipped, coming back to find her sister is dead, becoming a contract killer and almost killing Clint Barton. From a three episode appearance in Hawkeye through to this year's Thunderbolts. Which is great by the way. Really enjoyed that. Yelena is due to return in Avengers Doomsday next year in 2026, so welcome to the MCQ. Taskmaster would also return in Thunderbolts. One of the things that stands out the most for me, and seeing how far the MCU particularly has come over its almost 18 years of existence, is Black Widow. I'm talking about the character, not so much the movie, but the movie plays a part. Natasha Romanoff was for so long the only major female character and with that was projected everything your sole female character needed to be. She needed to be pretty, she needed to be funny, she needed to have trauma but be totally okay with it. She needed to service the men in the story, she needed to kick ass, she needed to look good doing it. And she needed to have no flaws, nothing visible anyway. She's Scarlett Johansson, one of the most beautiful women in the world and now the highest grossing lead actor of all time. But Black Widow needed to do this while also being hypersexualized. Johansson has acknowledged this herself. It was almost a prerequisite. In press for this movie she mentioned how the character was underestimated and undervalued by this lens of the male gaze. In Iron Man 2, Tony Stark says he wants one, and having developed and built this character over her many appearances, Johansson didn't want that. For Natasha, the era of the femme fatale is over. Compare the introduction of Natasha in Iron Man 2 to the introduction of Yelena. Yelena is just as physically attractive and fit as Natasha, just as agile and adept with a firearm. But Yelena is allowed to exist, is allowed to be feminine and vulnerable as well as smart and tough. The whole jabs at Natasha's posing was on set banter between Florence Pugh and Scarlett Johansson that ended up being written into the script because Natasha's early poses were silly. Now this hypersexualization didn't start with the mcu. It started with her depiction in the comics, but it shows how the MCU has matured and how executives have actually started listening to the actors and the fans. It undoubtedly comes as well from Johansson being an executive producer and having that say in how she wants the character to be depicted. But I love that she recognized that and that they've chosen to not go that way with Yelena. Yelena can be everything Natasha was, but she doesn't have to be perfect and she doesn't have to service the needs of men. Yelena has flaws, and this movie allows Natasha to have the same and for her to be finally free of some of her demons before her inevitable end in Endgame. But most importantly, we get a pass for a character that has no future. Yes, this movie should have come way sooner, but did it cheapen Natasha's death? In many ways, it deepened it. Natasha did what she did for Clint, but she also inadvertently brought back Yelena. It didn't need to do anything other than tell you more about Natasha to spend more time with her, which is accomplished here. This movie is not here to further the wider mcu, nor was it here to somehow bring Natasha back to life. It existed to bring us more of a character that we know was dead and to introduce another and to give us Rachel voice. Obligatory mummy reference. It feels sad. This is the first time I've mentioned Rachel voice, but this movie, there's a lot of other stuff to talk about. Ray Winston may have not enjoyed this movie, but Dreykov is an important tool in Natasha's forgiveness of herself and of her actions. He is such a monster and hates women so much that even his own daughter is a commodity for him to control. His end is adding no more red to anyone's ledger. His end is freeing all the widows, including Antonia Dreykov, from the evil clutches of a man who sees women as nothing more than controllable killing machine. These women are now free to live their lives as they see fit. They're given their humanity back, their rights back, and their autonomy back. And the reason I felt this movie resonated much more now than it did in 2021 is for many reasons, but also because of Roe vs. Wade and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Something that does not affect me here in the uk, but it does affect millions of women in the us. Millions of women who are being forced against their will to use their bodies in ways that they would not consent to had they had the means to acquire reproductive rights services, not just abortions, but general reproductive health care, including contraception. Cervical screenings and STI testing. The widows in this movie are vessels too brainwashed to do the bidding of Dreykov until their bodies can't do it anymore. They are forced by a man to use their bodies in ways they would not otherwise do. And in a post Roe v. Wade world, this screams so much of protecting women's bodily autonomy and giving a woman the right to choose because these women would not otherwise choose this life. They were young girls kidnapped from families, forced to become sterilised and forced to become killers. Natasha and Jelena's ultimate quest to free these women is a powerful statement that it's every woman's responsibility to be there for other women. And that resonated so much with me as a woman and as a supporter of women that for Natasha's final appearance in the mcu, she's no longer serving the men, but serving the women. And then in Endgame, she's serving everyone. Natasha has no future, but she now has a past and it's remarkably soulful, bittersweet, funny and tragic. And we finally know what happened in Budapest. But most importantly, Natasha died knowing she was loved by her family and her family. And she had a great vest with so many pockets. Thank you for listening. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on Black Widow and thank you for your continued support of this podcast. If you want to get involved and help this podcast grow and reach more people, you could tell your friends and family about this podcast or about this episode. You can leave a ideally five star rating or review wherever you found this podcast. And you can also find me and follow me on social media. I am at verbaldiorama cross social media where you can like post, comment on posts, share post, reply to posts, DM me, all of the above. I am more than happy to hear from you and to hear your thoughts as well. And if you like this episode on Black Widow, you might also like the following previous episodes that I've done around this character and there are quite a few episode 72 Captain America the Winter Soldier which still remains the best version of Natasha that's ever been put to screen, even including this movie. Because I love Natasha in the Winter Soldier Episode 73 Captain Civil War Episode 97 the Avengers Episode 98 Age of Ultron Episode 99 Avengers Infinity War and wouldn't you guess Episode 100 Avengers Endgame. As always, give me feedback, let me know what you think of those episodes. And for the next episode we are going from black to red and another spin off solo female led movie based somewhat on Marvel comics. But this one's a little different because in the 80s, fantasy movies were a big deal and so were sword and sorcery movies. Red Sonja of Rogatino would later become the inspiration for Marvel Comics Chainmail Bikini Warrior Red Sonja and after Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer, Red Sonja would take place in the same fictional universe with some of the same actors, but in different roles. It was a financial and critical flop. And yet a reboot has been talked about for decades. And coincidentally, completely coincidentally, I did not plan this. It's coming out at about the same time as the next episode of this podcast, which is on the history and legacy of Red Sonja. So please join me next week for an episode on Red Sonja. If you enjoy what I do for this podcast or you simply want to support an indie podcaster who does all of this on her own. If you have some spare change and you want to financially contribute to the upkeep of this podcast, you're under no obligation because this podcast is free and it will always be free. However, there are a couple of ways you can help if you have the means to. You can make a one off donation verbaldiorama.com tips or you can subscribe to the patreon@verbaldiorama.com patreon all money made goes back into this podcast by paying for things like software, subscriptions, website hosting or new equipment. Huge thank you to the amazing patrons of this podcast to Simon, Laurel, Derek, Kat, Andy, Mike, Luke, Michael, Scott, Brendan, Ian, Lisa, Sam, Jack, Dave, Stuart, Nicholas, so Kev, Heather, Danny, Stu, Brett, Bennett, M, Xenos, Sean, Ryno, Philip K, Adam, Elaine, Kyle and Aaron. If you want to get in touch, feel free to send me an email verbal dioramail.com you can also go to verbaldiorama.com and fill out the little contact form. I would love to hear from you genuinely. You can also message me on social media or you can DM me on social media as well. Please feel free to get in touch if you wish. And finally.

Bye.