Thor isn’t the only superhero Taika Waititi wants to have a go at. He has his sights set on another, and we think it sounds pretty cool.
Fresh from delivering us what is being hailed as the funniest Marvel movie ever in Thor: Ragnarok, director Taika Waititi has now told io9 that he’d like to continue making superheroes funny, this time with Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow.
Yes, we were surprised too.
“ Black Widow as something crazy and a bit funnier than we expect it to be,” Waititi said in the interview. “Because we know her story and it’s very sullen and very dark and her history is very dark. But! What’s the funny version of that? What’s the more entertaining version of that?”
If we have any reservations, it’s just that: Black Widow’s backstory is a tale of child abuse and brainwashing. As io9 rightly acknowledges, a comedy version of her story is “fundamentally opposed” to her “downtrodden history”. From what little snippets we’ve seen of the environment she grew up in, even in Agent Carter, it’s not a pretty picture.
It would be in poor taste to make light of that, not to mention a massive change in tone, but perhaps there is a place for some humor, as long as it’s not at Black Widow’s expense.
Waititi’s the one
If anyone can find the funny, it’s Waititi. He found it in a house full of vampires in What We Do In The Shadows, and who else would have stopped screaming enough to laugh at that concept?
Plus we know Johansson can make us laugh; appearances on Saturday Night Live, as well as her recent role in the movie Rough Night, have proven that.
In a world where female-led comedy is still relatively thin on the ground in Hollywood, it would be fantastic to see a woman be given the opportunity to be funny in the same way that Thor has. And we’ve certainly had enough of seeing women suffering on screen.
Black Widow, the comedian?
Johansson has had a fair amount of fun already as Natasha Romanoff too. Just because she’s an extremely capable assassin doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a sense of humor. We’ve seen her bantering with Hawkeye and teasing Captain America about his kissing technique, not to mention those times she’s shown impeccable comic timing in her fight scenes.
And in fact, it could be her dry, if not dark, sense of humor that provides the comedy. Doesn’t Hawkeye say “You and I remember Budapest very differently” when she makes light of it in The Avengers? She can keep her cool in the most horrific of situations, much to the incredulity of her colleagues.
But any discussions such as this could well be moot. As io9 points out, it’s unlikely we’ll ever actually see Waititi’s Black Widow. Marvel has only just committed to giving us a Black Widow movie at all — it looks like they’ll be treading more softly this time.
Related Story: Thor: Ragnarok's also-physical comedy
But who knows? Perhaps Thor: Ragnarok will change their minds.