Scarlett Johansson asked Marvel to remove her producer credit from Thunderbolts*.
During a chat with Black Widow co-star David Harbour for Interview magazine, The Phoenician Scheme star made the admission that she asked for her executive producer credit to be removed from the movie.
“It’s the opening day of a movie that basically you are the seventh Thunderbolt in. Your character is all over this movie…. You are an executive producer on it. Congratulations,” Harbour joked.
Johansson replied: “I asked to have my credit removed because I wasn’t involved.”
Her character was killed off in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame but she did appear in the 2021 prequel Black Widow alongside Harbour and Thunderbolts* star Florence Pugh.
Meanwhile, Disney CEO Bob Iger recently cited Thunderbolts* as “the first and best example” of Marvel’s new focus on quality over quantity.
It opened at Number One in the United States box office, making $74million (£55million) domestically and $160million (£119.8million) worldwide. It also currently stands at an 88 per cent ‘fresh’ critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, higher than Avengers: Infinity War and the first Captain America film.
NME’s four-star review argued that the antiheroes “make Marvel fun again”, saying: “Thunderbolts* doesn’t so much reinvent the wheel as remember what put the wheels on this bandwagon in the first place: an epic blend of thrills, spills and psychological ills. It’s the most fun the MCU’s been in years”.
There has been some controversy, however, as Marvel opted to change the title of the film to reflect the movie’s end twist. This sparked some debate among fans about spoilers, given the movie had only been in cinemas for a few days.
Meanwhile, Johansson is currently starring in Wes Anderson‘s latest film The Phoenician Scheme, which is out in cinemas now, alongside Benicio del Toro, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston.
In a four-star review of the film, NME wrote: “As ever, Anderson really cranks up the knowing whimsy. We see Korda grappling with his conscience in dream sequences where God is played by Bill Murray – who else? But The Phoenician Scheme never becomes smug or too self-referential; it’s simply a lot of fun peppered with unexpected bursts of action, a new addition to the Anderson arsenal.”