Back in November of 2021, MCU head Kevin Feige teased that he and Scarlett Johansson were developing a “top secret project” at Marvel that would not have any involvement from her Black Widow character. Feige pointed out that Johansson is the first Marvel actor to executive produce one of the studio’s movies with Black Widow and that she will serve in that capacity again on an upcoming Marvel project. Could that project have possibly turned out to be the recently released Thunderbolts*? However, Johansson is not listed as part of the executive producers. This is because she revealed she requested to have her credit removed.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Johansson would sit down for a talk with her former Black Widow co-star David Harbour for Interview Magazine, and the Jurassic World: Rebirth star explained how she asked Marvel to pull her credit from the film. Harbour says, “It’s the opening day of a movie that basically you are the seventh Thunderbolt in. Your character is all over this movie…. You are an executive producer on it. Congratulations.” To which Johansson responded,
I asked to have my credit removed because I wasn’t involved.”
Harbour jokingly shot back, “You hated the movie that much?” and laughed. Johansson answered, “No, you’re just wanting that to be the case.” Harbour told her, “I think you’d be proud of us.” Johansson responded, “I am proud of you.” Johansson’s initial executive producing involvement may have been a contractual obligation after executive producing Black Widow, but there had also been some conflict with Disney when Black Widow was added to Disney+ during the pandemic. Johansson took legal action as her deal with the studio involved a theatrical window and accused them of putting the film on their streaming service prematurely as a business tactic, which had eaten some of the box office income.
During the interview with Harbour, Johansson explained the unique situation of being in the MCU, where her character was involved in various ways, “Some of the films that I did for Marvel engaged my character more than others. Like in Captain America: The Winter Soldier with Chris [Evans], we were really dynamic. In some of the other films, the cast was so enormous and there was so much plot to serve that you start to feel like you’re a device to move it along. And if you’re committed to five and a half months of that, it’s like, ‘Okay. I can’t paint my nails, I can’t get a haircut.’ These sound like silly problems, but your identity is wrapped up in this job for a long time, and if you’re not doing engaging work as an actor, you feel a little cagey sometimes.”
