“A big mess to be honest”: Scarlett Johansson makes her feelings known about filming The Avengers

Nobody's sure whether a new project will work. The Avengers' only female member, Scarlett Johansson, who plays Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanoff, had her concerns about the 2012 movie while it was being filmed. Iron Man and Captain America had made themselves known with Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans as leads, respectively. That's even true for Thor. But the rest of the bunch? She wasn't so sure about it. She said:

"When you added the characters all together, plus Hulk and Hawkeye, it just felt like a big mess to be honest. Even on the set it felt crazy. We all looked insane. What are we doing? I don’t think anybody knew if it was going to work or not besides Kevin Feige and Joss Whedon. The cast had blind faith in them."

Yet, after over a decade and four movies, we are here. It seems like the blind faith worked like a charm. Collectively, the four movies have done the Marvel Cinematic Universe a $7.6 billion business. That's 22% of the overall revenue of the franchise as of this writing.

The Avengers, the original ones, however, disassembled following the events of Captain America: Civil War (2016) but united in a stand against Josh Brolin's Mad Titan, aka Thanos, in Infinity War and Endgame.

Scarlett Johansson would go on to act in eight more films after The Avengers

EE British Academy Film Awards 2020 - Red Carpet Arrivals - Source: Getty

ScarJo's journey in the MCU began with Iron Man 2 (2010), where she first appeared alongside Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury when she was disguised as Natalie Rushman in Stark Industries. She hit RDJ's Iron Man with a healthy needle after enjoying that small donut while sitting in that large donut at Randy's Donut.

Then, of course, there was the first encounter with Loki in The Avengers, which established the original six. The rest of the films, where Johansson would appear include Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Black Widow (2021).

Interestingly, Emily Blunt was the first choice for the role, but then, as she puts it, "the best girl got it."

The Avengers turned 13 years old this month

The film earned $1.5 billion globally. (Image via Marvel Entertainment)

If you have remembered, it was May 4, when The Avengers hit the theaters and we all witnessed how Loki destroyed New York City with his Chitauri and then how Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) destroyed him with his bare hands. "Puny God!" he says in that scene. And that scene stays with us. Rent-free. In our comical heads.

The film opened with $207 million at the domestic box office. That's still the eighth-biggest opening to date. Four of the seven above it belong to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, too. That would be Endgame, Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), Infinity War, and the recently released Deadpool & Wolverine (2024).

After Endgame was released, five of the original members of the bunch got a tattoo to mark their work together without Mark, who opted out of it. Now, the new chapters in The Avengers film series are Doomsday and Secret Wars, where in the former, Robert Downey Jr. is all prepared for a return as Victor Von Doom.