A photo posted to Marvel Studios' Instagram and Twitter accounts featuring most of the
MCU's female characters on the set of Avengers: Endgame has stoked the ire of fans.
Why?
Well, not for who it does include, but for who it doesn't.
Along with a few key crew members, the black-and-white photo features the vast majority of the MCU's
women posing and smiling for the camera, including Danai Gurira as Okoye, Elizabeth Olsen as
Scarlet Witch, Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, Evangeline
Lilly as the Wasp, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Zoe Saldana as
Gamora, and Karen Gillan as Nebula.
But Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow and Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie are missing in action.
There is, of course, a good reason for this.
Due to scheduling conflicts, Thompson's Valkyrie had to be digitally inserted into her scenes
during Endgame's climactic battle — meaning that she wasn't excluded, simply unavailable.
As for Black Widow… well, spoiler alert...
Black Widow took a swan dive off a cliff on the alien planet of Vormir.
The good news is that she managed to retrieve the Soul Stone for Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye.
The bad news is that the character bit the big one, and couldn't join in the big fight
against Thanos during the movie's climax.
This being the case, there was obviously no earthly reason for Johansson to be on set
the day that this photo was taken.
As you can plainly see, the cast and crew were in the midst of shooting that big final
battle, by which point Johansson's contribution to the film was complete.
Sure, somebody could have given her a ring and invited her to come on back down to the
set to pose for this lovely shot with her castmates.
But we're talking about a world-famous A-list actress who just might have had another professional
engagement on the day that they decided to snap an impromptu photo.
Of course, knowing this didn't keep fans on social media from completely losing their
minds over the totally understandable exclusions.
Complicating matters is the fact that many fans have widely speculated that the all-female
team-up scene in Endgame was also meant to tease the imminent arrival of a movie based
on A-Force, a team of superpowered women introduced in the pages of Marvel comics in 2016.
One fan even promised an uprising if Black Widow were to be excluded from such a project,
should it ever actually materialize, tweeting:
"I swear to god if the A-Force movie is made without Natalia Alianovna Romanova WE RIOT!!!!"
That, of course, completely disregards the fact that the character is, you know, dead,
and that her forthcoming solo film is pretty much guaranteed to be a prequel.
And to say that this was the only such tweet to light up the internet as a result of this
photo would be an understatement.
Of course, for every fan ready to burn down the internet over their favorite lady Avengers
being missing from the shot, there was at least one more jumping in to helpfully point
out that neither of them were on set that day.
This fact rather than some nefarious, photo-excluding conspiracy was the likely reason for their
absence.
But apparently, there simply aren't enough things in the world for some people to get
worked up over, which is the only reason we can think of for there to be any controversy
of any type whatsoever over this perfectly charming photo.
For its part, Marvel Studios has not commented on the kerfuffle, because of course it hasn't.
This is just Twitter being Twitter.
Obviously we're hoping for an A-Force movie just as hard as everyone else, but let's not
declare such a project an absolute failure if it doesn't completely satisfy every single
member of its intended audience.
Fortunately, Marvel Studios takes its marching orders but from Kevin Feige [FYE-gee, hard
G], who has yet to steer the studio wrong.
And who knows?
Maybe an A-Force movie could do the hard work of tasking its cast of characters with the
tough job of somehow bringing Black Widow back to life!
It worked for Superman in Justice League, right?
"Do you feel a sense of confidence that we're not doing something horribly wrong and macabre
here?"
"Not really."
Uhhhhh...on second thought...never mind.
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