She’ll always be a supporter — but it doesn’t look like Scarlett Johansson plans on involving herself in the Marvel Cinematic Universe again any time soon, to the point where she recently asked to have a credit she was given on Thunderbolts* removed.
“I asked to have my credit removed because I wasn’t involved,” the Black Widow star revealed in a recent conversation with Thunderbolts* star David Harbour for Interview Magazine. She had told Harbour, who reprised his Black Widow role as Red Guardian in the film, that she hadn’t seen the movie yet (the interview was conducted on the day Thunderbolts* came out). Harbour then pointed out that Johansson was an executive producer on Thunderbolts*, prompted the credit request reveal.
Harbour joked, “You hated the film that much?” But she was quick to clap back. “No, you’re just wanting that to be the case,” she told Harbour before confirming that she is “proud” of the folks involved in the film.
At least according to IMDB, Johansson is no longer credited as an executive producer on the film, which hit theaters early last month.
In a recent interview with Deadline, the actress mentioned that she is still open to directing an MCU project despite not wanting to return to the studio as an actor.
“Even producing Black Widow and being a part of the production of that, and the development of the story, and the story between Natasha and Yelena,” she explained. “[There is], I think, a way of doing it, a way of maintaining the integrity of the idea of human connection, family, disappointment, all of the things that were themes in [Eleanor the Great], and doing it in a giant way in a giant universe — there’s ways of doing that… So, yeah, definitely, it could be, it would be fun.”
Marvel’s Thunderbolts* marketing has involved officially changing the name of the movie to New Avengers soon after release. Marvel even dragged the on-screen dispute between Sam Wilson’s Avengers and this new superhero team into the real world. Thunderbolts* leads into Phase 6 kickstarter The Fantastic Four: First Steps in July.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
