Actress Scarlett Johansson is best known for her role as the assassin and superhero Black Widow in the MCU. The actress first made her debut in the franchise early in Iron Man 2 as Natasha Romanoff and slowly became one of the founding members of the ‘OG’ Avengers. Her character played an important role in the climax of the ‘Infinity Saga’.

While Johansson’s Black Widow was an irreplaceable part of the MCU, she only got her solo film in 2021. The actress reportedly wanted to address the MeToo movement and the s*xual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein in Black Widow, when the project first started taking shape in 2017.

Scarlett Johansson Says Black Widow Was An Allegory For MeToo

Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow

After numerous delays, plans for a solo Black Widow film starring Scarlett Johansson began development in 2017. MCU mastermind Kevin Feige reportedly met Johansson to discuss the prospects of the project, which became more of a reality only after the filming of Avengers: Infinity War. The team met with screenwriter Jac Schaeffer and hired her to pen the screenplay.

Fans of the MCU had been demanding a film centered on Black Widow ever since her debut in Iron Man 2. Scarlett Johansson too was excited to bring the project to life and joined as an executive producer to make sure the film heads in a direction that was right for the character. She reportedly spoke to screenwriter Schaeffer about making the film an allegory for the MeToo movement that had started weeks before the project started development.

Harvey Weinstein with Georgina Chapman

In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Johansson spoke about the Harvey Weinstein scandal which gave rise to the MeToo movement. Several leading actresses came out to report that the producer and distributor had exploited them. Johansson said,
“Unfortunately that’s just one example of so, so many…We had to comment on what is this incredible movement of women supporting other women, and coming through these shared experiences of trauma on the other side by really coming forward and supporting one another…you cannot miss the opportunity to draw the comparison between these two things.”
The film’s main antagonist General Dreykov, the head of the Red Room who sends young girls to be trained as assassins, was reportedly an allegory for an abuser in a position of power who manipulates women.

Scarlett Johansson Wore A Dress By Harvey Weinstein’s Wife To The Met Gala

Scarlett Johansson at the Met Gala 2018

After an expose by The New York Times and The New Yorker on the s*xual misconduct allegation against Harvey Weinstein, the producer was sacked from his position in The Weinstein Company and has since been convicted on the charges and sentenced to prison. The scandal led to the rise of the #MeToo movement, which spread around the world, with multiple women coming out to share their experiences of assault over the years.

Weinstein immediately retired from public view after the allegations surfaced. His wife Georgina Chapman divorced the producer soon after. She was the co-founder of the designer brand Marchesa. The brand also faced heavy losses due to its associations with Weinstein. However, Scarlett Johansson made a statement by wearing a dress designed by Marchesa to the Met Gala 2018, a year after the Weinstein scandal.

Despite many celebrities rejecting the brand, Johansson, who as mentioned called out the producer on his misconduct in Black Widow, chose the brand despite the controversy. In a statement to Entertainment Tonight, the actress said,
“I wore Marchesa because their clothes make women feel confident and beautiful, and it is my pleasure to support a brand created by two incredibly talented and important female designers.”
Reports indicated that Johansson herself approached Chapman to design the dress. Johansson was one of the many celebrities who joined the Women’s March in Los Angeles to speak out about the Weinstein scandal.

Source: Yahoo Entertainment, Entertainment Tonight