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Was The Avengers almost doomed from the start? Scarlett Johansson reveals why she and the rest of the cast lacked faith in Marvel’s biggest risk.
These days, it’s hard to imagine what Hollywood would look like without Marvel. The MCU has become the cornerstone of the theater experience, with the franchise putting out the biggest blockbusters year after year. However, that wasn’t always the case. There was a time before Scarlett Johansson and Chris Hemsworth were household names where the idea of bringing them together for The Avengers felt like a genuine risk.
Fans like to rewrite the history of the MCU by saying that Marvel always had a “big plan”. That everything they did in the Infinity Saga was planned from the start. Yet the truth is that most of it was done on the fly by the writers and directors attached to individual projects. According to Scarlett Johansson, it seemed only two people had faith that their big gamble with The Avengers would even work out well.
“When we made the first ‘Avengers’ none of us knew what the potential would be,” Johansson explained to Vanity Fair. “Iron Man was massively successful. It was huge. It built the studio of Marvel. Iron Man 2 was also successful. There was Thor, but that character felt like it was from a completely different universe. It was such a different tone from the Iron Man movies. The Captain America movie had its own identity as well.”
“When you added the characters all together, plus Hulk and Hawkeye, it just felt like a big mess to be honest. Even on the set it felt crazy. We all looked insane. What are we doing? I don’t think anybody knew if it was going to work or not besides Kevin Feige and Joss Whedon. The cast had blind faith in them.”
How The Avengers Ultimately Came Together
One moment stands out in the mind of Scarlett Johansson as the moment that made them feel like The Avengers could actually work. It was the 360 shot during the Battle of New York, a scene that has become one of the most iconic in the entire MCU. While nobody knew it at the time, that was the only moment that everyone was able to watch and realize that Marvel had something truly special on their hands.
“I remember the scene where we all are in that 360 of the characters together. That was the moment where we all thought this maybe could work. It felt powerful. When we watched the playback it looked really cool, but so much of it didn’t feel cool when we were shooting it. We were young. We were having such a great time. We became such great friends. It was a blast.”
Nowadays, Marvel is one of the biggest franchises on the planet. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t know the names of all the original members of The Avengers cast, with all of them, including Scarlett Johansson, going on to be household names. There’s no certainty regarding what comes next for the MCU. However, it is certain that getting there was one wild ride.
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