By: Russ Burlingame on May 14, 2012
There are plenty of female heroes in the Marvel Universe–including Captain Marvel, who’s getting her own series soon–but when Joss Whedon told Entertainment Weekly recently that he wanted to have more female heroes in the Avengers 2, everyone at a roundtable discussion of the film agreed it was a good idea. So what’s the holdup?
“A lot of the female superhero movies just suck really badly,” says The Avengers‘ lone spandex-clad superheroine, Scarlett Johansson.
While there was general agreement among the actors and Whedon that was an issue (and a humorous reference to The Pro by Samuel L. Jackson), they did name off a few Marvel heroes, including Avengers mainstay The Wasp, in the ensuing conversation. Whedon said that, even beyond the characters themselves, he’d had some trouble in the past just selling the idea of female leads in action movies.
“Studios will tell you: A woman cannot headline an action movie,” Whedon told EW. “After The Hunger Games they might stop telling you that a little bit. Whatever you think of the movie, it’s done a great service. And after The Avengers, I think it’s changing.”
Certainly, one blatantly comical fight featuring The Hulk, the character who was the most physically dominant in her fights was Black Widow, who beat up a group of armed men while tied to a chair before serving a fellow superguy the beating of a lifetime. Maybe next time out we can get a She-Hulk?
