It may not be held up as one of the franchise’s all-time greats by a massive number of Marvel Cinematic Universe fans, but Black Widow nonetheless left behind a legacy.
Director Cate Shortland finally gave fans the Scarlett Johansson solo movie they’d been demanding for a decade, and even though it was a prequel that took place prior to the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, it did a decent enough job in giving the iconic member of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes the sendoff she deserved.
It also marked the first-ever MCU feature to be helmed by a woman, but Shortland wasn’t the only name under consideration. Lucrecia Martin was also among the candidates, and in a scathing interview with The Film Stage, she couldn’t have made it any clearer as to why she ultimately wasn’t interested in the job.
“No, no, no, I didn’t see Black Widow. I tried to. They contacted a great number of female directors. I never would have imagined that Marvel could contact and bring together a pool of directors and I would be a part of it; I never thought that would be possible. I would have loved to make a film with them but I would have had to provide something that I would like to see in that world.
It turns out some of the Marvel films are available on planes so I’ve seen a few. I find the sound in them is absolutely in very poor taste, the visual effects and the sound of the effects. It’s the selection of the sounds that they’re connecting to the effects, which is actually very ugly. And the way the music is used is actually horrible.”
Martin wasn’t in the mood for sugarcoating her feelings, and you get the distinct impression she wouldn’t have fared too well under the supervision of Kevin Feige and his lieutenants to adhere to the MCU’s standard tropes and trappings. That being said, it would be fascinating to imagine what she could have delivered had she been handed creative freedom.