Black Widow will not appear in Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3 might be adding new acting talent to its ranks left right and centre, but according to Scarlett Johansson, Black Widow will not be among the characters returning from the previous film.

The star revealed to Screen Rant that her character would not be appearing in Shane Black’s upcoming threequel, but not before revealing her desire to star in a solo Black Widow movie.

“I think that you build this kind of character in the hope that the fans are like, ‘we want more,’” says Johansson. “I personally think there’s an awesome Black Widow movie in there. A kind of Bourne film that would take the whole comic-book genre in a completely different direction. It’d be awesome.”

“I’ve spoken to Marvel about it and Kevin Feige,” she continues, “and there’s so much story to draw from, I think it’d be totally awesome. But do I want to spend another three months shedding the manatee skin and squeezing back into that suit? Not necessarily, but it’s all worth it in the end!”

Having been left on the sidelines to a certain extent in Iron Man 2 , Black Widow really comes into her own in The Avengers , with several killer scenes keeping her at the heart of the action. If Marvel were to green light her own spin-off, perhaps in tandem with a Hawkeye storyline, we’d certainly think it worth a punt…

The Avengers opens in the UK on Thursday, with Iron Man 3 set to arrive on 3 May 2013.

George Wales

George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.