Vanity Fair have reported that Rachel Weisz is in talks with Marvel to join the cast of Black Widow, staring Scarlett Johansson. Generally I don’t take too much notice of such “announcements” and this “news” circulated a few weeks back, but now that reputable publications are running the story we may well see this to become true. The film is set to start filming around July and it has an Australian female Director named Cate Shortland.
Nerdist have written a great article on the possible Marvel characters Rachel Weisz could play. The name from this list that I have seen the most from fans is Yelena Bolova/Black Widow 2. The name that intrigues me the most from this list is Viper/Madame Hydra. Viper is a villian, and described as a “criminal mastermind” a chemist, a nihilist, a capitalist, a mutation. She doesn’t care about anyone but herself, but will assist anyone that pays her a substantial amount for her assistance. She views men with some degree of contempt, such as when she told Logan that she was immune to the toxin that is men. As Nerdist said, the complexities of this role sounds very ideal for someone of Rachel’s acting calibre. If Rachel does take a role in Black Widow, which Marvel character would you like to see her portray?
Over at our Twitter page we have a poll going to have a say if you would like to see Rachel in Black Widow, be sure to have your say 🙂 So far 58% have said yes, 24% have said no and 18% are undecided. Rachel Weisz supposedly looking into this film could be strategic brilliance. In all of Rachel’s blockbusters, press coverage always focused more on her coworkers-despite her career accolades. Show “business”, remember. Captain Marvel (female lead-Brie Larson) has passed $1B in revenue and the excitement for Wonder Woman 1984 is high (female lead-Gal Gadot). Female lead action films, that are powerfully represented, are profitable & propel the cast. Black Widow is female lead. Rachel Weisz’s star power was boosted by her phenomenal performance in The Favourite, but maybe she wants, and rightly so, a piece of the “world stage” pie. And it’s no secret that Rachel has spoken out in favour of powerful female leads, so this isn’t left of field. Black Widow could be a clever move for her career, I just hope the press recognise her talent and cover her. But my biggest hope is that the role is juicy and has depth because anything less would be wasted on Rachel. I don’t automatically think of raw performances when Marvel is mentioned, but we may be pleasantly surprised 🙂