Scarlett Johansson Says Avengers: Endgame Elevated The Genre

Scarlett Johansson knows a thing or eight about Marvel movies. The actress has appeared in eight already released titles and still has her own Black Widow standalone film to look forward to next year. While Avengers: Endgame ultimately seems to be the end of Black Widow’s time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (except for the upcoming prequel film set after the events of Captain America: Civil War), the actress is looking back at the biggest movie of all time quite fondly. According to Johansson, Avengers: Endgame has “elevated” the comic book movie genre as a whole with its many accomplishments.

“I’m really proud of Endgame. It was so ambitious,” Johansson told VantiyFair. “I felt it really strongly delivered. I felt it was satisfying. Actually, I felt like Endgame elevated the genre in a lot of ways and it actually allowed all of us as characters to have great dramatic moments where you don’t really have that room in those genre movies because they’re so plot driven. This one was actually quite character driven. I felt very emotional when I watched it but also very proud of it.”

Endgame was no easy feat. The co-directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo helmed what became the biggest movie of all time by loading it with moments for the likes of Black Widow along with Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Thor, and many others. The crowded film was not without the character-driven moments Johansson is referencing, especially Johansson’s final leap as Black Widow in which her character’s long-standing history with Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye was on display.

Moving forward, Johansson goes backward with the character for at least one more outing prior to Black Widow’s Endgame death. “We just wrapped Black Widow like two weeks or something like that so it’s very fresh in my mind and I don’t have a total perspective on it yet,” she said. “It’s a film about self forgiveness and it’s a film about family. I think in life, we come of age many times in life, and we have these moments where you’re in a transitional phase and then you’re sort of beyond it. I think in the Black Widow film, I think the character when we find her, I think, is in a real moment of crisis. Throughout the film, by facing herself in a lot of ways and a lot of things that make her her, she actually comes through that crisis on the other side and is able to reset into that space where she’s a more rounded, self-possessed person.”

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Black Widow hits theaters on May 1, 2020.