Hey Mar­vel, hur­ry up and give us a Black Wid­ow movie, already

Scar­lett Johans­son has offered an ​“update” on a pos­si­ble Black Wid­ow spin-off, telling Vari­ety, ​“it’s a pos­si­bil­i­ty… I think if the fans want­ed it enough, then it would prob­a­bly become a real­i­ty.” The thing is, simi­lar com­ments already stirred up plen­ty of excite­ment among fans back in 2010 when, at a Com­ic Con press con­fer­ence, Mar­vel pres­i­dent Kevin Feige announced that the stu­dio had ​“already start­ed dis­cus­sions with Scar­lett about the idea of a solo movie and have begun putting togeth­er concepts.”

Six years on, still no sign of said movie, despite fans hav­ing tak­en to social media to express their frus­tra­tion via #Black­Wid­ow­Movie. Now, with DC’s Won­der Woman set for release in 2017, and Marvel’s very own female-led super­hero movie, Cap­tain Mar­vel, in the pipeline, it begs the ques­tion, has Black Wid­ow been left behind?

In 2014, com­ic book writer Nathan Edmond­son went so far as to write a satir­i­cal short treat­ment for a Black Wid­ow solo out­ing. Even Jes­si­ca Chas­tain has joined the fight, ask­ing The Wrap, ​“Where is the Scar­lett Johans­son movie? I don’t under­stand it, why is it tak­ing so long for this? This woman clear­ly shows that peo­ple want to go see her in the movies.. she shows that she kicks ass… why are we still wait­ing for a go-ahead on a super­hero movie star­ring Scar­lett Johansson?”

So why not just make the film already? Johans­son is on board. Feige is on board. The fans are def­i­nite­ly on board. Even Joss Whe­don, who has said that he will not direct a Mar­vel movie again, is seem­ing­ly game. Speak­ing to IGN ear­li­er this year, he teased, ​“if some­body point­ed at me and said, ​‘Do you want to make a Black Wid­ow movie?’ the answer would be ​‘duh’.” At the rate Mar­vel is going, how­ev­er, fans are unlike­ly to see this long-moot­ed Black Wid­ow spin-off, at least not before 2020 with oth­er Avengers film tak­ing pri­or­i­ty. We could be in for 10 years of vague talks and discussions.

Sure­ly, giv­en the character’s pop­u­lar­i­ty, Mar­vel is miss­ing a gold­en oppor­tu­ni­ty and one which may well have an expi­ra­tion date. As Johans­son put it to Vari­ety, ​“I’d have to do it while I still actu­al­ly want­ed to wear a skin-tight cat­suit. I don’t know how much longer that’s going to be.”