A Fan-Favorite Song Was Almost on Marvel's Black Widow Soundtrack

More often than not, a movie is elevated into something special with the help of its soundtrack, as a specific needle drop can become associated with a key scene. One of the most recent examples has been Rush's "Tom Sawyer", which has taken on a life of its own thanks to the recent wrestling biopic The Iron Claw. As a new social media post reveals, "Tom Sawyer" almost got spotlighted in another blockbuster — Marvel's Black Widow. According to David Hayter, who was set to write and direct a Black Widow movie for Lionsgate in the 2000s, his script would have had the song play during a key moment in Natasha Romanoff's history.

"in my BLACK WIDOW movie, when twelve-year-old Natasha first stood up to fight her Red Room comrades, I was going to needle-drop Tom Sawyer," Hayter's posts read. "And the closing credits song would've been "When I Grow Up" by Garbage."

And the closing credits song would've been "When I Grow Up" by Garbage.

— David Hayter (@DavidBHayter) December 27, 2023

Why Didn't David Hayter's Black Widow Movie Happen?

Hayter was first attached to Lionsgate's Black Widow in 2004, writing the script and even naming one of his children Natasha in the ensuing years. In the summer of 2006, Lionsgate decided to have the rights revert back to Marvel Studios, and the film was unable to get made by another studio. Of course, Marvel Studios eventually made a Black Widow movie as part of its Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, which premiered in 2021.

"What I tried to do was use the backdrop of the splintered Soviet Empire—a lawless insane asylum with 400-some odd nuclear missile silos," Hayter explained in a 2011 interview. "It was all about loose nukes, and I felt it was very timely and very cool. Unfortunately, as I was coming up on the final draft, a number of female vigilante movies came out. We had Tomb Raider and Kill Bill, which were the ones that worked, but then we had BloodRayne and Ultraviolet and Æon Flux. Æon Flux didn't open well, and three days after it opened, the studio said, 'We don't think it's time to do this movie.'"

Will There Be a Black Widow 2?

At the time of this writing, a proper Black Widow sequel has yet to be greenlit by Marvel Studios. That being said, pieces of the film's lore, like fan-favorite characters Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and Red Guardian (David Harbour), are expected to factor into the MCU's forthcoming Thunderbolts movie, which will premiere in 2025. 

"I think they're all great characters and I think what people want is they want diversity. I think we want to see female superheroes kicking ass," director Cate Shortland told ComicBook.com in 2021. "I think we're all interested in seeing more of them."

What do you think of this new update about Lionsgate's scrapped Black Widow movie? Would you have wanted to hear "Tom Sawyer" in the film? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!