Marvel Just Announced Black Widow, the First Trans Superhero Film

Sure, we were excited when Marvel announced that Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie would become Marvel's first openly queer superhero in the upcoming film Thor: Love and Thunder, but we have some even more exciting news from this weekend's San Diego Comic Con. Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige has officially announced that the first trans-led superhero film is coming next year. That's right, Black Widow is here, she's queer, get used to it!

At Marvel's epic Comic Con panel, Feige announced that Black Widow -- starring legendary trans actress Scarlett Johansson, who recently made headlines for rightfully asserting she should be able to "play any person, or any tree" she wants, will be released May 1, 2020. Johansson, who has been filming a mysterious project (it has to be a guest spot on Pose, right?), was in attendance, alongside Midsommar star Florence Pugh, Stranger Things' David Harbour, and Hollywood's favorite faux-lesbian Rachel Weisz. A montage of footage from the film was played for the audience, and while it hasn't leaked online yet, io9 took meticulous notes.

After an opening that, we assume, included the Transparent theme music, Widow says in voiceover: "I used to have nothing. Then I got this job. This family. I was better because of it. I've made mistakes. I can't go back." Chosen families! Living your truth!

Black Widow will be set in Budapest, finally dramatizing a mission referenced in almost every film Black Widow a.k.a. Natasha Romanoff has starred in. After an intense fight scene with Pugh's Yelena Belova (a TERF, we have to assume) that "feels like a fight from a Jason Bourne movie or Captain America: The Winter Soldier," according to io9, the trailer moves on to a montage:

"Widow is running on a beautiful mountain range. There are other agents like her pointing guns off the roof of a building. A motorcycle chase a la Mission Impossible. Just lots of very grounded action stuff. Finally, Widow is in a car that gets smashed into on a bridge in the night. She's hurt, the car is burning but she looks out and something is coming for her. She shoots but this shape pulls out a shield to stop the bullets. A fight begins and, again, they have a similar fight style. After a few moves, they both kneel and look up at each other in the same position, as if they are mirrored...This character had a mask on and a shield with a symbol that looked almost like two bowls attached at the bottom. Yes, it very much looked like The Taskmaster."

We'll have to wait until Black Widow is released next year to know how that all plays out, but for now...wow, what an epic win for trans representation.

Editor's Note: Yes, we are aware Scarlett Johansson is not transgender.

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