Marvel‘s “Black Widow” finally releases this week and will likely be the final MCU outing for actress Scarlett Johansson. The actress has been playing the former Russian spy Natasha Romanoff since joining the massive superhero sandbox in 2010’s “Iron Man 2” after Emily Blunt had to exit the role over a scheduling issue with the long-forgotten Jack Black comedy “Gulliver’s Travels.”
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When she did sign on to appear in the “Iron Man” sequel, she had to sign a massive deal, not unlike other early MCU peers like Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, and Samuel L. Jackson (who agreed to star in a whopping nine movies originally). However, those days of actors agreeing to lock themselves into six to nine-picture movies deals from the jump seem to be over.
During a chat with The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel Studios president, and Marvel chief creative officer, Kevin Feige, has revealed that they’ve done away with those long-term deals.
“That got a lot of attention way back when, with I think Scarlett, and Hemsworth and Evans and Sam Jackson. It varies now,” studio head Kevin Feige told THR when asked if the studio is making sweeping talent deals for both film and television projects.
Feige elaborates further, “It varies, project to project, cast to cast. Really, what we want are people that come in, are excited to be in the universe, are excited at the opportunity to do more things, as opposed to being locked into contractual obligations.”
Subsequent deals have allowed actors to negotiate increased backend earnings, and there is room to re-up contracts after they expire. We’ve seen plenty of actors continue and sign new deals. Chris Hemsworth is an excellent example, as he’ll be one of the few original Phase One actors to stick around alongside Jackson.
Folks might not remember, but Kevin Feige was directly involved with casting actors during the early days of Marvel Studios. Still, the massive contracts and lowball offers came from Marvel’s former boss, Ike Perlmutter. The stingy pay during the early days was notorious as someone like Chris Hemsworth reportedly made only $150K to star in “Thor.” Perlmutter caused a lot of tension among the ranks at Marvel and was ultimately removed from the film division by Disney after Kevin Feige threatened to leave.
As the company’s new CCO, Feige now oversees film, TV, publishing, and animation divisions at Marvel. Everything is now under one umbrella.
