An Image featuring Black Widow actor Scarlett Johansson. Source: JoBlo

The 54-year-old Argentine director Lucrecia Martel, who was one of the filmmakers shortlisted to direct Scarlett Johannson’s Black Widow film, while recently appearing in an interview with The Daily Pioneer, claims that she passed the superhero blockbuster because Marvel Studios didn’t want her to touch the action scenes of the film. 

"I received an email from Marvel for a meeting, so I went to the [Marvel 10th Anniversary] reunion. I actually signed this thing where I can’t talk about that reunion,” she said.

Martel added that the studio wanted a female director for the film and someone who was particularly willing to focus on Scarlett Johansson’s superhero character Black Widow. "Marvel and other such production houses are trying to involve more female filmmakers …What they told me in the meeting was, 'We need a female director because we need someone who is mostly concerned with the development of Scarlett Johansson’s character.'" 

A Poster from Black Widow film featuring Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh. Source: Jioforme

She further added that the studio told her not to worry about the action scenes of the movie and she wanted to do the exact thing with Johansson. “But, They also told me, 'Don’t worry about the action scenes, we will take care of that.' I was thinking, 'Well, I would love to meet Scarlett Johansson but also I would love to make the action sequences.'"

Martel continued by criticizing Hollywood’s biggest and successful franchise Marvel Studios because according to her the MCU films are very difficult to watch as they always lack a good soundtrack. "Companies are interested in female filmmakers but they still think action scenes are for male directors. The first thing I asked them was maybe if they could change the special effects because there's so many laser lights. I find them horrible. Also, the soundtrack of Marvel films is quite horrendous. Maybe we disagree on this, but it's really hard to watch a Marvel film. It's painful to the ears to watch Marvel films."

In addition to the 36-year-old superstar Scarlett Johansson in the role of Natasha Romanoff also known as Black Widow, returning to reprise her role of fan-favorite superhero character Black Widow as she has been previously seen in many MCU films like Avengers Endgame and many more, Marvel Studios The Black Widow featured a star-studded cast of 25-year-old English actress Florence Pugh in the role of Yelena Belova / Black Widow, David Harbour in the role of Alexei Shostakov also known as Red Guardian, O-T Fagbenle in the role of Rick Mason, Olga Kurylenko in the role of Antonia Dreykov also known as Taskmaster, William Hurt in the role of Thaddeus Ross, Ray Winstone in the role of Dreykov, Rachel Weisz in the role of Melina Vostokoff / Black Widow, Liani Samuel as assassins of Red Room, Michelle Lee in the role of Lerato and Nanna Blondell in the role of Ingrid.

Marvel Studios Black Widow arrived in theatres on 9th July 2021, after a long delay due to the impact of Coronavirus Pandemic around the world because of which theatres had to be closed down.