The Russo brothers, best known for directing Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, weigh in on the growing concern of studios devaluing many of their big-name stars, and the duo cited the incident involving Disney and Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson.
Last July, Johansson filed a lawsuit against Disney over an alleged contract breach, as Black Widow was released on Disney Plus at the same time it was playing in theaters. Reports later confirmed that the two parties reached an agreement, with Disney paying the MCU star an additional $40 million.
Speaking with the Den of Geek, the Russo brothers commented on why more and more studios may be treating their stars this way, of course bringing up Johansson's experience with Disney. “We’re certainly concerned with the trend in the market that’s moving away from artists… there’s been a lot of value in tech companies getting involved in making content, but there’s also some downsides to that," Joe Russo shared. "And those downsides include tech companies like Netflix and Apple and Amazon having much deeper pockets than studios do, and they can pay more and that’s starting to scare the studios.”
Russo would further add that many of the studios are downplaying the need for stars and are forcing IP to be their star instead. “So the studios are having a conservative reaction, and they’re trying to downplay their need for stars. They’re trying to force IP to be their star, and in accordance with that, they’re also then trying to underpay and diminish the need for stars on their projects.” As for the Johansson lawsuit, the duo were disheartened at how Disney handled the whole situation, especially since they have known Johansson for many years, as she first collaborated with them on 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier. "That was really not an appropriate way for them to handle that situation. It was disturbing to us as artists. Scarlett is a good friend of ours, and we were disheartened by how it was handled. We’re glad it’s resolved," Russo added.
The duo has reached a halt in any negotiations with Marvel Studios on returning for another project. Since they did not comment on that in this most recent interview, there is still no way of telling if things between the two parties have gotten any better. But knowing of their critical success with the Marvel Studios, there is still a chance the duo can return for another storyline. But until they return to the superhero cinematic universe, the two are looking to start a cinematic universe of their own with The Gray Man film, their upcoming action thriller based on the series of novels written by Mark Greaney.
Black Widow is now available on Disney Plus.
Source: Den of Geek