– Kevin Feige spoke with Kyle Buchanan for Vulture about women in Marvel. Captain Marvel is due for release next year, and they recently hired a female writer (Jac Schaeffer) for their Black Widow movie.
– He also notes all the women from Black Panther, and especially notes Tessa Thompson from Thor: Ragnarok as Valkyrie, who made such an impression on him on the possibility of a film lead by these breakout actresses, such as a female Black Panther spin-off.
– Feige on Black Panther:“Even watching the audience at the Black Panther premiere respond to Lupita, Letitia, and certainly Danai in their action sequences … you watch Danai spinning around in that casino, taking out dozens of people, and you go, ‘Of course you can make a whole movie about that!’”– When it might happen:“It is all about figuring out when and how. But by the way, many of them have already filmed additional scenes in upcoming movies, so some of that is gonna come sooner rather than later. All of them will be seen again.”
– Re: Captain Marvel and and the suit, Feige said a lot of scenes were shot on location, and since everything is filmed by paparazzi nowadays, Marvel decided that if pictures of it leaked, they leaked. "Most people are savvy enough to know they’re looking at a behind-the-scenes photo, completely out of context. So we don’t do things like rush photos. We released some concept art of her with different colors. People online have correctly identified what’s going on there.”
– Feige on Michelle Pfeiffer's Performance Janet Van Dyne in Ant-Man and the Wasp:“I don’t want to say too much, but I will say that’s she’s every bit as iconic and amazing in this part as you would imagine. People ask sometimes about movie stars and star power and who’s the most exciting person to be around, and the truth is that once you get to know them as people, they don’t feel like movie stars — everybody is just a super-impressive human. But in a room full of movie stars, Michelle Pfeiffer rises to the top.”
– Feige recently corralled all of the actors from his films into one big tenth anniversary photo, and Michelle turned heads. “You can tell how big Michelle is, because all the other movie stars are going, ‘Is that Michelle Pfeiffer over there?’”Of course, Feige does not mention:– Thor: Ragnarok cutting a scene where a woman walks out of Valkyrie's bedroom. Tessa Thompson pitched director Taika Waititi that Valkyrie should be bisexual based on her relationship with Annabelle Riggs in the comics.
– He tried to keep it in the editing process as long as he could, but it was eventually cut because it interrupted the "vital exposition" of the scene. Thompson recently starred in Janelle Monae's bi anthem Make Me Feel.– Black Panther cutting a scene where Okoye and Ayo flirt. In the comic spinoff World of Wakanda about the Dora Milaje (special forces team of women), Ayo is in a relationship with Aneka (not featured in the film... there's been some conflating of Okoye and Aneka).
– Vanity Fair's Joanna Robinson profiled the warriors of Black Panther in April 2017, describing the scene as Ayo complimenting Okoye's looks and her smiling back, "leaning" into the WOW storyline. Co-writer Joe Robert Cole confirmed in an interview that was where the idea came from.Joanna Robinson: In the rough cut of this Black Panther scene, we see Gurira’s Okoye and Kasumba’s Ayo swaying rhythmically back in formation with the rest of their team. Okoye eyes Ayo flirtatiously for a long time as the camera pans in on them. Eventually, she says, appreciatively and appraisingly, “You look good.” Ayo responds in kind. Okoye grins and replies, “I know.”
This quick moment between two warrior women on their way to T’Challa’s coronation leans into a current very popular run of the Black Panther comic. A 2016 spin-off called World of Wakanda by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Roxane Gay, and Yona Harvey is all about the relationship between two members of the Dora Milaje. The official description:"A Wakandan love story—its tenderness matched only by its brutality.
You know them now as The Midnight Angels, but in this story they are
just Ayo and Aneka, young women recruited to become Dora Milaje, an
elite task force trained to protect the crown at all costs. What happens when your nation needs your hearts
and minds, but you already gave them to each other?"
E. Oliver Whitney: During a phone interview, I talked to Black Panther co-writer Joe Robert Cole about the deleted scene and how it suggested a gay relationship between Ayo and Okoye. When I asked him whether it was originally written that way or if there was ever any intention of including the World of Wakanda queer love story in the film, he said yes. And then his explanation for the change got a bit muddled from there.
Joe Robert Cole: "I think the short answer is yes. I know that there were quite a few conversations around different things, different directions with different characters, and characters that we may have. We thought, ‘Well, maybe we’ll work it this way with an arc or work it that way with an arc.’
The scene you’re talking about, I don’t remember. I can’t remember the exact exchange you’re talking about, but I think it was really brief. I’m not sure. I know that it was not – there wasn’t some major theme through that we were looking to explore with that in terms of the story. We didn’t like, pull out a full thread of some theme. But your friend quite possibly could be right, or I’m maybe having a brain fart here and just can’t remember."
ONTD, are you glad Marvel is taking those baby steps?Sources:1234567891011121314
