Credit: Marvel StudiosMarvel shocked the world when it killed off fan-favorite character Natasha Romanoff in the Russo Brothers’ Avengers: Endgame (2019). While the Infinity Saga conclusion may be the last time we see Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, fans have recently got to see more of the Avenger’s story in her own solo outing.
Director Cate Shortland’s Black Widow (2021) debuted earlier this month, and while Marvel fans rejoiced at a new feature film set in Kevin Feige’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, a fellow actor in the industry made some rather controversial remarks about the new movie and its star.
Black Widow finally entered the MCU after a year of delays due to the ongoing pandemic. Shortland’s superhero movie was missed but fans did welcome new Disney+ series WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki while they waited.
Following Johansson’s former assassin turned Avenger, Black Widow explored Natasha’s backstory and introduced characters like Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Alexei Shostakov AKA Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz). The Marvel film takes place between Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018). Pugh’s Yelena was well-received by fans and critics, becoming an instant MCU icon.
Marvel’s Black Widow broke box office records upon its release, and also saw big numbers via its Disney+ Premier Access simultaneous release. Although, the Johansson-led movie posted a huge second-weekend drop at the global box office with many in the theater industry suggesting Disney’s choice to dual-release the new Marvel movie both in theaters and at home has caused a significant decrease in earnings.
That being said, despite its box office turn, Black Widow offered fans a chance to reunite with Natasha, bring in the Marvel Universe’s newest villain — Taskmaster — and seemingly set up appearances for its characters in future projects. It’s all quite positive over at the Black Widow camp, but just a few weeks ago actor Stephen Dorff who played Deacon Frost in the original Blade (1998) made some rather controversial comments about Feige’s latest venture.
The comments of both Black Widow and its star Johansson were quite harsh, and now the True Detective actor has responded to his original comments.
Speaking to TMZ, the actor backtracked on his previous remarks and offered an explanation. Per the report;
The “Blade” star could do nothing but sing Scarlett’s praises … and he explained his interview with the U.K.’s Independent outlet was “taken a little bit out of context.”
When asked what caused the outburst;
He seems to point the finger at the reporter … who “got me in a moment where I was s*** talking a little bit.”
The report then concludes;
The movie’s been out for almost a month and Stephen admits he hasn’t seen “Black Widow” … which, btw, has an 81% score on Rotten Tomatoes. And, for what it’s worth, he says he’s already cleared the air with ScarJo.
It’s interesting to see that Dorff has some regrets after his controversial comments. Just a couple of weeks ago, Dorff also passed comment on the upcoming Blade reboot set in the MCU, and while he didn’t make any outlandish comments here, he did sing the praises of his True Detective co-star, Mahershala Ali, who will lead the Blade movie as Eric Brooks AKA Blade.
Not much is known regarding the upcoming Blade movie from the Feige-helmed Marvel Studios. We know Ali will take on the eponymous role, and that the writing the script is Stacy Osei-Kuffour of Watchmen (2019) fame. Recently, indie filmmaker Bassam Tariq was reportedly in final talks to direct the vampire-centric movie.
Blade doesn’t yet have a release date.
What do you think of Stephen Dorff’s comments regarding his earlier controversy? Let us know in the comments!