Tessa Thompson and Most of the Female Marvel Superheroines Want a Movie of Their Own

For all its successes on the big screen, Marvel Studios’ MCU still doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to featuring its female superhero stars in prominent roles. Yes, they’ve been part of all the big team-ups, such as the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy, but 10 years into the biggest franchise on Earth, there still hasn’t been a female-fronted movie in the series. Hell, Marvel Studios somehow let DC of all groups beat them to the punch by putting out the well-received Wonder Woman this year. It won’t be until 2019 that Marvel finally gets on the ball with the scheduled release of Captain Marvel, which will star Academy Award-winner Brie Larson as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel. At that point, it will be more than 11 years after Robert Downey Jr. starred in the first Iron Man.

It isn’t surprising, then, that the female stars of the MCU want to change all that. Tessa Thompson, who plays the hilarious and scene-stealing Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok (which we’ve already been fortunate enough to see) recently revealed that she, along with a plethora of other Marvel superheroines, have been pitching the studio on getting a film of their own. Scarlett Johansson, Zoe Saldana, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan and Brie Larson are among the others who have lobbied for such a film alongside Thompson. In an interview with CBR, Thompson described the conversations the actresses have been having, and their attempt to bring the idea before Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige.

“I think in that group was Brie Larson, myself, Zoe Saldana, although she ran off to the bathroom, I think, so she came midway through the pitch but she had been in the rev-up to it,” Thompson said to CBR. “Scarlett Johansson. Pom [Klementieff] and Karen [Gillan], who are both in the Guardians movies. Yeah, I think it was that group. We were just sort of all in a semicircle talking, and it just came up, because none of us really worked together – well, I suppose Zoe, and Karen, and Pom – and wouldn’t it be nice if we could all work together?”

“And we were sort of speculating on they ways in which it might happen in Infinity War, or might not happen,” she continued. “And we thought, ‘No, we should just have a whole movie where we know every day we’re going to arrive and get to work together.’ So we just ran right up to Kevin Feige and started talking about it.”

“That’s the thing that’s so fantastic about Kevin is you always get general interest from him,” she ellaborated. “At least when you start speaking, and then you might get 10 minutes in, and you sense that maybe something is not as exciting. But no, he’s really open to collaboration and wants to hear what we’re interested in.”

Call us crazy, but that doesn’t sound like the kind of unabashed exuberance we’d expect the president of the company to share about the idea. It’s likely that the studio won’t plan on focusing their attention in this direction until after the release of Captain Marvel and both Avengers: Infinity War movies, but that likely means even more delays in telling more female-fronted stories. For the sake of all the women in the audience—can we expedite things a bit, man? You’ve got a hell of a lot of talent and enthusiasm here—give them the showcase they deserve.