Black Widow Herself Didn’t Originally Care For Romance With Hulk in Age of Ultron
Most movies (or at least the good ones in my opinion) are ones with layers. Yes, most people like action, but if the action is hollow with no connection to the characters, then what is it exactly? The opposite is also true though, if the character stories and connections are hollow, or baseless, or pointless, why should we care about them?
Despite being hyped to infinity (is hype one of the stones?), and making a boatload of money its first weekend, many reviews (including mine, which you can read here) noted how the romance between Black Widow and Hulk seemed rather odd. Not just that it happened with very little buildup (remember, he almost killed her in Avengers, and she seemed to be destined for Hawkeye and also flirted with Cap), but that the conversations between them took them out of character. Especially for Black Widow, who fans note is never this emotional like ever. She rarely ever comes forward about her emotions, even when she loves someone. So this was seen as forced. Apparently, Scarlett Johansson felt the same way as she revealed in an interview with Fandango (via BoingBoing.net):
“I didn’t really understand or expect the connection that these two make with one another. [It] seemed very unlikely to me when I first read the script. I met with Joss and I was like, ‘Why are you putting these two together?'”
She also added: “It’s kind of like the guy who was like, ‘Remember the first time we saw each other, we had something!’ And the girl is like, ‘I don’t even remember you.’”
Hmm, interesting. No? Apparently it didn’t make much sense to her at first either. It’s unclear whether she got on board later, or just acted like she was asked to, but it’ll be fun to speculate!