It’s been a long time coming for female superheroes to get top billing on the big screen, but now we’ve had Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, and the upcoming Black Widow. But what’s the point of doing that if they aren’t going to tackle issues unique to women? Fortunately, in the case of Black Widow, star Scarlett Johansson tells Empire (who have also released a new image featuring Taskmaster) the film will be very relevant.
“I think this film in particular is very much reflective of what’s going on in regards to the Time’s Up movement and the #MeToo movement,” Johansson said. “It would be such a miss if we didn’t address that stuff, if this film didn’t take that head-on. I think, particularly for Cate [Shortland, director], it was so important for her to make a movie about women who are helping other women, who lift other women up out of a very difficult situation. Someone asked me if Natasha was a feminist. Of course she is, it’s obvious. It’s kinda an asinine question.”
I don’t know how “asinine” the question is, given Natasha’s origin in the restrictive Soviet Union. But Johansson’s point is well-taken that right now, in this moment, Natasha is in line with the feminist movement and it would feel odd for her not to be. The good news is that Johansson is speaking up about this, much as Brie Larson did while promoting Captain Marvel.
Black Widow opens on November 6th.