Scarlett Johansson

For the second year in a row, Jennifer Lawrence tops the list of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood, while the impressively prolific Dwayne Johnson has unseated Robert Downey Jr. as the highest-paid actor. Unfortunately, the highest-paid actors still earn millions more than their female counterparts, proving that Hollywood’s gender disparity problem still needs some fixing.

How do you become a fan favorite as an actor? Easy. Just love the character as much as the fans do. For as much as we enjoy pitting the various comic book franchises against each other, the secret weapon of the films released by Marvel Studios has always been that we honestly and truly believe that the people involved are having as much fun making the movies as we are watching them. And near the top of that list has to be Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow.

This is a big year for animated movies featuring talking animals: Zootopia, Finding Dory, The Secret Life of Pets and now, Sing. But what sets the latest adventure apart from its animated brethren is right there in the title, and you can get a taste of what’s in store this Christmas thanks to a new extended trailer, featuring the voices of Matthew McConaughey and a whole bunch of other people you really like.

If you’ll remember, a few months ago we broke the news that Ghost in the Shell producers had tested visual effects that would make the Caucasian members of their upcoming film adaptation appear Asian. Multiple independent sources confirmed that this was part of an attempt to “shift the ethnicity” of lead actress Scarlett Johansson in post-production. The news went over about as well as you would expect.

There are so many Marvel heroes in Captain America: Civil War that it almost feels more like a bridge between Avengers: Age of Ultron and Infinity War than a Cap sequel. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo did a fine job of juggling multiple characters and action set pieces, giving each hero a chance to shine — that was particularly evident in the airport sequence, in which we saw pretty much everyone fighting each other in various combinations. The one combo we didn’t get was Black Widow and Cap, but a new animatic from an unused scene gives you an idea of what that might have been like.

Earlier this week, a new poll revealed that the MCU character fans most want to see in a standalone film is — unsurprisingly, still — Black Widow. Phase 3 is set to conclude in 2019 with Avengers: Infinity War (which will soon undergo a title change), and the only film Kevin Feige has confirmed for Phase 4 so far is Guardians of the Galaxy 3 (which may or may not be directed by James Gunn). And although he doesn’t 100-percent-confirm it here, Feige presents a Black Widow solo movie as a very real possibility for Phase 4.

Of the original Avengers cast, only Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow haven’t starred in their own solo movies. While audiences only really warmed up to Hawkeye thanks to his arc in Age of Ultron, fans have been enamored with Black Widow since she made her debut in the otherwise-underwhelming Iron Man 2. There’s been talk off and on over the last few years about a Black Widow solo movie, and just in case the people in suits over at Marvel are wondering: yes, audiences still very much want to see it.

Paul W. Downs and Lucia Aniello, the boyfriend-girlfriend comedy team known as Paulilu, has been churning out hilarity at factory-levels for the past couple years. In addition to working on the writing staff of Broad City (where Downs also appears as Abbi’s insufferably upbeat boss Trey), they created the Time Traveling Bong miniseries that ran on Comedy Central just last week and have loads of so

After the backlash surrounding Johansson’s role in the film, producers reportedly attempted to quell the controversy with an old standby Hollywood uses to fix a lot of problems: CGI. According to multiple independent sources close to the project, Paramount and DreamWorks commissioned visual effects tests that would’ve altered Scarlett Johansson in post-production to “shift her ethnicity” and make the Caucasian actress appear more Asian in the film.

One of the things we just didn’t have time or space to get into in our Captain America: Civil War review, is just how great Scarlett Johansson is in the film. Black Widow is so dynamic and exciting to watch, it’s almost a crime Marvel hasn’t given Johansson her own action movie yet...