All-women ‘Avengers’ may be in the works
SOMEONE might want to add a few more stalls to the bathroom at Avengers Tower. An all-female version of the team could be on the way.
At a recent press conference for the upcoming Marvel sequel “Thor: Ragnarok,” Tessa Thompson, who plays warrior Valkyrie, says she approached the studio head with an idea.
“I marched up with a couple of other women who work in Marvel and [asked Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige,] “How about a movie with some female superheroes? Like all of them?”
Feige said his answer was simple: “Yes.”
The idea is hardly crazy. The success of last summer’s “Wonder Woman” — which raked in $821.5 million at the box office — went a long way toward disproving the old chestnut that audiences won’t show up for a superhero movie featuring a female lead.
But will an all-female “Avengers” actually happen? There are a few complications that might keep it from coming to a screen near you anytime soon.
First, Marvel would have to figure out which char- acters such a team would even include. Thompson has suggested basing the roster on the Lady Liberators, an obscure supersquad introduced in 1970. The bad news is that even die-hard comic book fans likely haven’t heard of that team. The good news is that all of its members already exist in the current Marvel cinematic universe.
Wasp, played by Evangeline Lilly, was introduced in 2015’s “Ant-Man.” Russian spy Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) has been a staple of Marvel’s films since “Iron Man 2.” The magic-wielding Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) first appeared in 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” And long-haired Medusa is appearing weekly in TV’s “Inhumans,” played by Serinda Swan.
Updated Liberators appeared in print in 2008, but with an expanded membership — one that would prove problematic filmwise. It included the Invisible Woman and the X-Men’s Storm, two characters controlled by other studios.
What is certain is that the current incarnation of the Marvel cinematic universe is soon ending. Longtime players, such as Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) and Chris Evans (Captain America), have strongly hinted at hanging up their costumes, and Feige has said that after 2019’s “Avengers 4” a reboot or new direction will be required.
That will likely leave an opening for new teams and
characters. Ladies first?