Joss Whedon Envisions a Black Widow Movie for Marvel

In the wondrous wake of the Wonder Woman trailer that has taken the world by storm at SDCC 2016, it is only half surprising that this bit of news from Moviefone comes out now. The irony about this is that, as many know very well, Joss Whedon was one of the biggest champions of a Wonder Woman movie being made in the first place. He was at one point, attached to write and direct a planned film about the Amazon Princess before the project fell through. Costume designer Shawna Trpcic, who worked with Whedon on his shows Angel, Serenity, and Dollhouse, even went so far as to develop concept art for the look of Wonder Woman in Whedon's version of a movie that unfortunately would never come to be. We all know what happened next, don't we? Of course, Whedon is then picked up by Marvel to do those little-known Avengers flicks, before walking away from the studio. Whedon was recently asked about his dream project at Comic Con and his response was, "If someone pointed at me and said, 'Do you want to do a Black Widow movie?', the answer would be 'Duh!'" Not surprising at all coming from the man who gave us both the film version and the wildly successful television show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Especially since one of his trademarks has a lot to do with the female-centric story. Almost immediately following Black Widow's live-action debut in The Avengers fans have been calling for her solo film. With her rich and multilayered backstory, certainly a compelling film could be made with her in the lead. It seems that Whedon's vision for such a film has more or less taken a form that he'd like to run with. "[You can] really do a spy thriller [with her character]. Like really do a good, paranoid, 'John le Carré on crack' sort of thing. That would be really fun." Not to mention it would be very different than the more formulaic MCU fare with the exception of perhaps the first Iron Man movie and of course, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The Winter Soldier in particular is still one of the MCU's strongest offerings, with its grounded, paranoid 1970's thriller feel. A Black Widow movie in a similar vein would certainly be pretty cool. While some of us might still be sad that we'll never see the Joss Whedon version of Wonder Woman, it is quite exciting that it is finally happening after seemingly endless decades of fans hoping, begging and screaming for it to be made. Patty Jenkins is in a great position to help usher in the full situation of a live-action vision for the character. That said, Joss Whedon would do a decidedly awesome Black Widow movie, without question. Now that Wonder Woman is on her way, maybe it'll be easier for Marvel to get with it and open the door for more ladies in the lead. (Captain Marvel aside.) And if that never happens,who knows, maybe he has another Buffy character up his sleeve that he could do on his own without too much studio meddling. We can dream, can't we?