MarvelBlog News for June 15th, 2025

Current and former Marvel people are saying things that don’t paint Marvel in the best light.

We’ll discuss the oddities in this week’s MarvelBlog News.

No, Thank You

We’ve got three main stories to cover this week, along with several others. And I’ll just level with you.

The first two items are weird. Like, I don’t even understand the point of them. Generally, when Hollywood talents vent like this, there’s lingering resentment.

I’d like to think that’s not the case with either performer, but we’re often the most honest when we’re answering reflexively.

And that brings me to Scarlett Johansson, whose recent track record with Disney and Marvel has been…complicated.

You may recall that fans demanded a Black Widow movie basically the moment after Iron Man 2 debuted in theaters in 2010.

So, why did that release take more than a decade? Well, that’s a two-part answer, with most of it being Isaac Perlmutter.

The former owner of Marvel…well, let’s just say he had strong opinions about how movies should be cast.

Anyone who wasn’t a white male didn’t qualify as a good idea for a movie in Perlmutter’s estimation.

Simply getting Black Panther off the ground required Kevin Feige to threaten to quit his job, if you can believe that.

Similarly, Black Widow remained theoretical, as did most merchandise based on the film.

When Disney and Marvel finally made the movie, the pandemic delayed it again. And sometime along the way, Johansson sued Disney.

Don’t get me wrong. She was right to do it, as demonstrated by the fact that former CEO Bob Chapek meekly settled.

Still, bridges were burned. As an act of contrition, Disney listed Johansson as a producer on its latest film, Thunderbolts*.

Well, guess what? Johansson didn’t want that. In fact, she recently informed David Harbour that she had asked to have her name removed.

Since producers get paid a lot, that’s a wiiiiiiild request.

The Disgruntled

During the interview, Johansson indicates that she hasn’t watched Thunderbolts*, which is worrisome.

I say this because Thunderbolts* borders on being a direct sequel to Black Widow. You can read the back and forth.

Let’s just say that Johansson doesn’t appear to be the most passionate Marvel fan at the moment.

She may not be the only one, either, although the next story makes a bit more sense.

You should realize that DC has a lot riding on its next Superman film, and James Gunn is in charge of DC now.

As the director of that film, Gunn has embarked on a media blitz in anticipation of Superman coming out on July 11^th.

Ordinarily, this would be a bit early for this much press, but a LOT is riding on this movie doing well, which it should.

Gunn, who made his reputation with Guardians of the Galaxy, has since become the competition.

I’m mentioning that as a preface to what just happened, as Gunn kinda threw Marvel under the bus a bit with his comments.

Gunn Taps Out

You can decide for yourself. When asked about Guardians of the Guardians Vol. 3, a wonderful film, the director stated:

“‘I’m not gonna put him in. I don’t want to have Thor in the Guardians. I don’t want to do a movie with Thor.”

At this point, I’ll remind you that Thor paired up with the Guardians of the Galaxy team in the Avengers movies.

So, in the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame, the expectation was for Thor to team with them again. That…didn’t happen.

If you’ve ever wondered why, Gunn will happily tell you. According to him:

“I don’t understand the character that much. I love watching his movies, and I love Chris Hemsworth as a guy. I don’t understand how to write that character.”

I interpret him as saying that Marvel dictated a superhero team-up. By this point, he had enough stroke to make his own movie.

Still, he sounds like he felt pressured to add a character he didn’t want in his final Marvel movie…and he sounds like he resents it.

Obviously, the industry wants a feud to develop between Gunn and Marvel. I’m not saying that’s what happening here.

Still, in combination with Johansson’s comments, it’s an unfortunate batch of headlines for Marvel this week. Thankfully, they do have some good ones…

Marvel Miscellany

The third huge story this week is that Marvel has released the final trailer for Ironheart. You can watch it here:

Don’t get me wrong. We’ll get several more teaser clips over the next few days leading up to the release of Ironheart on Disney+.

However, this is the final clip, and it’s pretty. It’s also coming at the perfect time for Anthony Ramos, who could use the distraction.

On the box office front, early tracking results are in for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and they’re good news for Disney.

While I trust tracking about as much as I trust Justin Baldoni’s PR firm, the data hints at a $120 million opening.

That total aligns with the film’s opening day Fandango sales, which the company suggests are the first first-day sales this year.

Given the opening weekends of films like The Minecraft Movie and Lilo & Stitch, that’s phenomenal to hear about Fantastic Four.

On the Marvel animation front, the company recently unveiled the series premiere of Eyes of Wakanda. Early buzz was glowingly positive.

Off to the Sony side of Marvel, Shameik Moore, the voice of Miles Morales, did a quick interview recently.

During the conversation, he indicated that he’d appear in the film three times, which hints at another Miles Morales we’ve yet to meet in the Spider-Verse.

And speaking of the Spider-Verse, Dakota Johnson isn’t over it yet.

 

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