There’s a rumor going around — a beautiful, fantastic rumor. With the release of the new Avengers movie (I’m seeing it tonight, and I’m SO EXCITED), it’s difficult not to notice something particularly interesting about this latest Marvel film:
It stars a lot of women.
In fact, the list of female Marvel superheroes just keeps growing — and they are, well, awesome. Just look at the photo at the top of this article — and that doesn’t even include Scarlett Witch, Shuri, or Pepper Potts!
We’ve come a long way since the first Avengers movie, where the venerable Black Widow was basically carrying the ship when it came to female representation on screen. But now? Look at all those incredible lady superheroes. Just look at them! It kinda makes you think, doesn’t it? Kinda makes you wonder…what might, say, an ALL-FEMALE AVENGERS film look like??
Oh, be still, my heart.
A lot of people have been wondering this, as it turns out. The rumors are flying. The ladies themselves have actually pitched the idea, and Karen Gillan has already offered to direct — so we’re basically good to go, right? That means it’s happening?!
Well, if greenlighting movies was as simple as writing strongly-worded online articles, then sure, maybe. But that’s not the world we live in, and as it stands…it will probably be a while before we see a film like this.
But we can obviously keep hoping.
Danai Gurira, who plays General Okoye in Black Panther (and reprises the role in this weekend’s Infinity War), addressed these rumors in a chat with Ellen Degeneres this week, and brought even more hope to all our superhero-loving hearts.
“I keep hearing this rumor, also,” Gurira says with a smile. “…It’s showing that there’s this hunger for that kind of thing.”
With more and more female-led action films gracing our big screens, it’s clear there absolutely is a hunger for this sort of thing, and personally? I feel that hunger in my bones. Hollywood is finally realizing that women want to watch all kinds of movies — not just romcoms! We want action movies. We want scifi. We want heist (my life is a countdown to Ocean’s 8 right now). It’s almost like women are multi-layered human beings whose preferences vary person to person. Shocking, I know, but I really think there might be something to it. I mean, Wonder Woman is currently the highest-grossing superhero origin film of all time, so there’s definitely money behind this ‘lady fad’* (*not a fad. Fun fact: Women have been around as long as the human race has existed!)
So let’s make this happen, Marvel. Let’s get an all-female Avengers. We all know you can do it. You have the power. You have the technology. You have the women. And, as Gurira so aptly states in that video, “Magic happens when women do their thang.”
(And I’d like to add, in the words of Ellen’s apt reply, “I just want to say that I can do super-human things. So if you need me in it at all, there’s things I can do.” So c’mon, Marvel. Let’s make some magic.)
