Disneyand Marvel can strike one legal headache off their checklist as the company has officially reached an agreement with theBlack Widowstar that puts an end to the lawsuit that was filed by Scarlett Johansson’s representatives back in July.
The central matter of Johansson’s claim was that the company breached the existing contract between both parties that allowed her to benefit from the box office profits obtained byBlack Widowdue to releasing the movie on Disney Plus from day one. Since then both sides traded several blows, although it was eventually disclosed thatBlack Widowmade at least $125m from streamingand digital sales, besides the $379m that it recouped from theaters worldwide.
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According to The Hollywood Reporter, a settlement has been effectively reached, although no specific details about it were disclosed to the public that would indicate just how costly the entire affair was for Disney. An official statement from Johansson was limited to say she’s “happy to have resolved our differences with Disney”, while leaving the doors open for future projects; on the opposite camp, Disney Studios’ chairman Alan Bergman agreed on his relief over putting an end to the case, noting “We appreciate her contributions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and look forward to working together on a number of upcoming projects, including Disney’s Tower of Terror.”
Even then, this will not be the end of Disney’s current legal disputes, as its subsidiaries arefacing several copyright lawsuits involving Marvel characterslikeSpider-Man,Iron Man,Doctor Strange, and theBlack Widowherself. Those cases are pitting the heirs of many comic book creators against Marvel as they look to regain the rights to profit over their original work, unlike Hollywood actors, creative work for hire talent has had to settle for very little for decades due to lacking any type of ownership over the character they conceived.
Black Widow and her friend Hawkeyeusually got the short end of the stick in the Avengers, both from a business and story perspective, with Johansson even calling Disney’s first response to the lawsuit outright misogynistic. Luckily for Clint Barton,the upcomingHawkeyeserieslooks like a far better setting for Jeremy Renner’s character to shine than what Natasha Romanoff got.
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