Emily Blunt could’ve joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, in Iron Man 2. The Oppenheimer star is now opening up about what she thinks of Scarlett Johansson who ended up playing the role across multiple films.
“Come on, the best girl got it,” Blunt said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast about Johansson adding that she was “amazing.”
Johansson would go on and reprise the superhero role in films like The Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and the standalone Black Widow movie in 2021.
Furthermore, Blunt has been rumored to have been offered other roles in the MCU. Roles that Blunt was allegedly up for included Captain Marvel which ultimately went to Brie Larson, Peggy Carter who Hayley Atwell ended up playing and Sue Storm from Fantastic Four which went to Jessica Alba and Kate Mara in different adaptations of the franchise.
“Rumors. Talk. Queries. That kind of thing,” Blunt said of the rumors noting that she never met with producers or directors of the films.
Since Black Widow first made an appearance in the MCU in 2012, Blunt has starred in films like The Five-Year Engagement (2012), Looper (2012), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), Into the Woods (2014), Sicario (2015), The Huntsman: Winter’s War (2016), The Girl on the Train (2016), A Quiet Place (2018), Mary Poppins Returns (2018), A Quiet Place Part II (2020), Jungle Cruise (2021) and most recently Oppenheimer.
In an interview from 2019, Blunt said on the Howard Stern show on SiriusXM that she was “contracted to do Gullever’s Travels” in 2010 despite not wanting to do it.
“It was a bit of a heartbreaker for me because I take such pride in the decisions that I make, and they mean so much to me, the films that I do, so that was tough,” she said of turning down the Marvel role. “They [Fox] kind of have a bit of a hold over you. There were other movies that I would want to do.”