Red Sparrow is a movie about a Russian agent who’s trained to be an expert fighter, using her skills as an assassin to take out targets assigned to her by a secret organization.
If that sounds familiar to one of Marvel’s most popular Avengers, you’re not alone.
Red Sparrow hasn’t received too much attention in recent weeks, but the arrival of the new trailer has Marvel fans calling it the Black Widow movie they’ve been demanding for close to a decade. Although there’s no movement on a Black Widow movie, now that Disney owns 20th Century Fox, this may be the closest Disney and Marvel Studios gets to creating one.
It’s not too hard to see why comparisons are being made. There are similarities between Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha “Black Widow” Romanoff and the character Lawrence seems to be playing in Red Sparrow.
WRITER 1: What can we title this so nobody suspects it's just a Black Widow knock-off?
— Jeff Weiner (@JeffWeinerOS) January 8, 2018
WRITER 2: ... Red... Sparrow?
STUDIO: Here is a check with many zeroes. https://t.co/vi7dCj3ZHK
i can't believe we're getting the red room origin story of black widow....but for some reason with jennifer lawrence?
— call me by my handle (2017) (@krutika) January 8, 2018
i love jlaw but idk if she has this particular range
How come Scarlett Johansson isn't in the Black Widow prequel and why is it called Red Sparrow?
— Andy Lewis (@andyblewis) January 8, 2018
The frustration among Marvel fans is palpable, but not unfounded. Questions about Marvel’s commitment to a stand-alone Black Widow movie has been a topic of interest for years. Marvel Studios’ co-president Kevin Feige told Deadline in 2016 the studio was committed to working on a Black Widow stand-alone movie.
“The one creatively and emotionally we are most committing to doing is Black Widow,” Feige said. “We think she’s an amazing character. She’s a lead Avenger and has amazing stories in her own right to tell that we think would be fun to turn into a stand-alone franchise.”
Johansson has been vocal about wanting to play the character, earning vocal support from fellow Marvel Cinematic Universe cast members like Robert Downey Jr. and Clark Gregg; both actors have previously questioned why she didn’t already have one.
Despite the jokes about Red Sparrow being the Black Widow movie Marvel fans have been waiting on, others called out the similiarities between the characters. Others compared Red Sparrow to other films, including last year’s Atomic Blonde. Others tweeted that just because these movies have female-led roles in traditional action movies, that doesn’t mean they should be compared.
Red Sparrow will be released on March 2, 2018. There is currently no Black Widow movie in development.
