Scarlett Johansson Reveals The Avengers Had Big Worries Filming First Movie, “It Didn’t Feel Very Cool”

Marvel star Scarlett Johansson reveals that when she was working on 2012’s The Avengers, the cast wasn’t sure the movie would work. In a video for Vanity Fair, the actress looked back at her extensive filmography, and The Avengers was one of the many projects discussed. Johansson opened up about the concerns the cast had during production, not knowing how Marvel could bring the various characters together. While Johansson believes Avengers director Joss Whedon and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige were confident in their plan, it wasn’t apparent to the actors right away. It wasn’t until when Johansson saw the now famous circle shot that she started to see the vision.

“When we made the first Avengers, none of us knew what the potential of [the film] would be … when you added the characters all together, it felt like a big mess to be honest,” Johansson said. “Even on the set it felt crazy because we all looked insane. It’s like, ‘What are we doing?’ I don’t think anybody really knew if it was gonna work or not. I’m sure Kevin Feige knew it was gonna work, Joss Whedon knew it was gonna work, but the cast … it was blind faith, basically, that we all had in Joss and in Kevin Feige.”

Johansson then discussed the circle shot where the camera pans around the full Avengers team. “I remember that scene where we’re all in front of Grand Central and you see the 360 of all the characters together. That was the moment where all of us were like, ‘I think this is maybe gonna work.’ It felt powerful … when we watched the playback, it looked really cool, but so much of it didn’t feel very cool when we were shooting it.”

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The Avengers marked the end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase One, accomplishing the goal established by the Iron Man post-credits scene. It quickly became one of the most successful movies of all time. The positive reviews helped it gross $1.5 billion worldwide. That level of success helped transform the MCU into the pop culture juggernaut it’s known as today.

The Avengers series is now the premier brand in the MCU. Following the original 2012 film, there were three more Avengers movies released over the course of the Infinity Saga, all of which were massively successful. Both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame grossed over $2 billion each. The next Avengers film is Avengers: Doomsday, which opens next summer.

It’s humorous to think about now, but there was a time when The Avengers was a substantial risk. Nobody had attempted a shared cinematic universe like this before, and when The Avengers released, many of the characters weren’t exactly household names. The two Iron Man movies had proven to be massive blockbusters, but Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger had much more modest grosses. There was no guarantee audiences were going to respond to The Avengers as enthusiastically as they did, and if the film didn’t land with the desired impact, the MCU would have ended before it really began.

With that in mind, it’s easy to understand why Johansson and her co-stars had doubts while shooting. It’s similar to how the cast of Star Wars felt during production of that film. When a genre picture takes a big swing like that and tries to break the mold, it’s only natural to be unsure of things. There had been several successful superhero films prior to The Avengers, but there’s a difference between a hit film starring Spider-Man or Batman and what Feige was trying to achieve. Fortunately for everyone involved, The Avengers checked all the boxes and those fears Johansson had were for naught.