Black Widow film with Scarlett Johansson may happen, Feige talks Ancient One in ‘Doctor Strange’ and Hulk film

Marvel continues to find success, now with Captain America: Civil War opening to a massive box office draw. Marvel Studios Exec Kevin Feige spoke with Deadline about the MCU and upcoming films, including a possible solo film for some of the more supporting chracters.

“We’ve announced the next nine movies, 10 counting Civil War, through the end of 2019. Where we go beyond that are ongoing discussions that we’ll focus on in the next few years because we have a lot to do before then,” Feige said. “Of the characters that you’ve just mentioned I would say certainly the one creatively and emotionally that we are most committing to doing is Black Widow.”

Feige praised Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) as an “amazing character” and “We think Scarlett Johansson’s portrayal of her is amazing. She’s a lead Avenger and has amazing stories in her own right to tell that we think would be fun to turn into a stand-alone franchise.”

Breaking stereotypes and empowering female roles is something Marvel is and will do in the future. Next up will be the gender swap of “The Ancient One” (Tilda Swinton) for Doctor Strange.

“The casting of The Ancient One was a major topic of conversation in the development and the creative process of the story. We didn’t want to play into any of the stereotypes found in the comic books, some of which go back as far as 50 years or more. We felt the idea of gender swapping the role of The Ancient One was exciting. It opened up possibilities, it was a fresh way into this old and very typical storyline. Why not make the wisest bestower of knowledge in the universe to our heroes in the particular film a woman instead of a man?…”

On a new Hulk film, he explains: “Well, those are contractual things that I’m not entirely attuned to. Disney and Universal would need to come to an agreement to allow Marvel to do a stand-alone Hulk film for Disney. What’s so great, and as you just said, Ruffalo lights up any room he’s in, any Twitter feed he’s engaged in and any movie that he’s in. It’s just a great pleasure to have him in The Avengers films and as you know his next appearance will be in Thor: Ragnarok, which is a whole other type of fun Hulk adventure for him that we can’t wait to get started on.”

The complete coverage is over at Deadline