Scarlett Johansson wanted off Thunderbolts credits after feeling like a plot device

In a spicy tell-all convo with Thunderbolts co-star David Harbour for Interview Magazine, the Black Widow herself spilled major tea: she asked Marvel to yank her executive producer credit from Thunderbolts because, in her own words, she "was not involved." Mic drop.
Scarlett Johansson has had enough of the MCU, and she is not sugarcoating it
While Harbour was all praise and 'congrats' for her producer status, Johansson was quick to clarify that she wanted nothing to do with it and requested the credit be removed, hinting that the only reason it was there at all was due to a contract clause. Awkward much?
Feeling like a pawn in Marvel's mega machine
But the drama did not stop there. Scarlett went full no-filter mode, saying that being part of massive Marvel ensembles sometimes made her feel like nothing more than a glorified plot-mover. According to her, some projects like The Winter Soldier were creatively fulfilling, but others? Not so much.
Being sidelined in overcrowded storylines for nearly half a year left her feeling 'cagey,' especially when her identity was basically glued to a red wig and spy suit.
David Harbour is just as burnt out
And if you thought David Harbour was going to disagree, think again. He mirrored the exhaustion, having played Hopper in Stranger Things for nearly a decade. The actor admitted that while the love was real in the early seasons, the repetitiveness eventually got to him. He just wants to take a risk again—and honestly, same.
Black Widow's chapter is closed, for good
Scarlett's Black Widow met her dramatic end in Avengers: Endgame, and while fans clung to hopes of a multiverse return, she has made it very clear that her chapter is closed. She told Vanity Fair that her character's arc is complete, and revisiting it would be disrespectful—to the role, and to the fans.
So yeah, Scarlett Johansson has officially ghosted the MCU. And no, she is not sorry about it.

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Time of India

13 hours ago

• Time of India

US strikes Iran: How Tom Cruise's Top Gun: Maverick eerily predicted Donald Trump's Operation Midnight Hammer

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But above all, Top Gun: Maverick gave audiences something even rarer: sincerity. It wasn't cynical. It wasn't ashamed of heroism. It put on aviators, turned up the volume, and said: "Let's go." Top Gun Maverick Beach Scene 4K IMAX And go it did—straight into the heart of America's foreign policy theatre. Because what looked like a nostalgia-fuelled testosterone trip in 2022 now feels like something far more uncanny in 2025. As President Donald Trump orders a massive stealth strike on Iran's Fordow nuclear facility, Maverick doesn't look like a movie anymore. It looks like a propehcy. A daring pre-emptive strike. An underground uranium plant. A ticking clock. A threat not to America, but to unnamed "allies in the region." What once felt like high-octane fantasy is now playing out, almost scene for scene, in the skies above the Middle East. And Tom Cruise? He wasn't just making a sequel. He was filming the trailer for Trump's next war. The Anti-Woke Hit That Soared When Maverick dropped, it didn't just break box-office records—it broke Hollywood's progressive chokehold on patriotism. No identity politics. No postmodern angst. No war guilt disguised as character development. Just raw American adrenaline, jet-fuelled storytelling, and Tom Cruise doing what Tom Cruise does best—defying gravity and cultural trends alike. Even Jon Hamm showed up, having shed the whiskey-soaked aura of Don Draper to play a tight-laced, by-the-book commander who looked like he personally banned pronouns from the base. You could almost smell the Aqua Velva. The cast was tailor-made for culture-war glory. Miles Teller stepped in as Rooster—Goose's mustachioed legacy—looking like he belonged on a recruitment poster for bros who bench for liberty. Monica Barbaro played Phoenix, the token female pilot who neither lectured nor got lectured—just flew like hell and left feminism on mute. Glen Powell's Hangman was Iceman 2.0: arrogant, tanned, and ready to drop a snide remark along with his payload. Jennifer Connelly was there too, ageless and cool, running a bar where no one talks politics. No lectures. No apologies. Just call signs, dogfights, and sweat-drenched montages scored to the sound of American confidence. Reagan Redux: Top Gun Was Always Propaganda Top Gun (1986) Official Trailer - Tom Cruise Movie The 1986 Top Gun wasn't just a movie—it was Cold War propaganda with better hair. The Pentagon handed over carriers, jets, and script suggestions. Hollywood returned the favour by air-dropping a generation of recruits into Navy flight school. It was recruitment wrapped in romance and set to guitar riffs. Maverick followed the same flight path. The military offered full support. The Navy looked like gods. But this time, there was a twist: the enemy was unnamed. No Soviet MiGs. No al-Qaeda. Just a faceless rogue nation with a uranium facility in the mountains. The target? An underground enrichment site. The mission? Destroy it before it becomes operational. The threat? Not to America—but to our unnamed "allies in the region." Nobody said Iran. Nobody said Israel. And yet everybody knew. That narrative sleight of hand—so brazen in its vagueness—would soon feel less like creative license and more like strategic foreshadowing. Scene for Scene: Trump's Iran Strike Mirrors the Film In June 2025, President Trump—new term, same instincts—ordered a real-world operation that bore eerie resemblance to Maverick. Seven B-2 bombers took off from the US under the cloak of midnight. The mission: Operation Midnight Hammer. The target: Iran's Fordow uranium enrichment facility, buried in the mountains near Qom. A site designed to withstand everything short of Armageddon. A site built for this very moment. In Maverick, the enemy is never named, but the target is clear: a uranium plant in a GPS-jammed valley, surrounded by surface-to-air missiles and fifth-gen fighters. In real life, Fordow sits in a mountainous fortress, shielded by SAM batteries, jamming tech, and hardened bunkers. In the film: three weeks become ten days become go-time. In reality: intel warned that Iran's enrichment programme was just days from a critical threshold. And in both cases, the justification was identical: not America-first, but ally-defence. In Maverick, it's the vague protection of "our friends in the region." In 2025, Trump didn't even bother with euphemism—Israel was the subtext and subtext became text. It wasn't a shot-for-shot remake. But it was close enough to make even Cruise raise an eyebrow behind his aviators. Whose War Is It Anyway? What made Maverick eerie in hindsight was how little it bothered to justify the mission. No American hostages. No nukes pointed at New York. Just an unspoken understanding that someone else's red line was worth flying into. And that's what the Right is now debating. Why should American pilots risk their lives for foreign bunkers? Why should billion-dollar aircraft be dispatched to send messages on behalf of another democracy? Maverick doesn't ask "why." It only asks: "Can it be done?" That question, in 2025, is no longer rhetorical. The Real Finale: A Flag, a Flyby… and a Fade to Black Maverick ends like every great American military fantasy: mission accomplished, uranium plant obliterated, and Tom Cruise strutting across the tarmac with his abs and aircraft intact. The jets land. The music swells. The flag flutters in cinematic slow motion. It could have been lifted straight from the closing scene of Operation Midnight Hammer. But imagine for a second that Maverick didn't make it. 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Only last month in Saudi Arabia, Trump, trying to draw a red line between himself and Dubya, declared: 'In the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built. ' As David Remnick pointed out in a recent piece in New Yorker , Trump once echoed Bannon and Tucker Carlson when he said: 'In recent years, far too many American Presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it's our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy to dispense justice for their sins.' Top Gun: Maverick (2022) Dagger Attack Scene And yet, here we are—seven stealth bombers later. A highly classified mission. A decoy formation. A multi-theatre deployment. A strike not to defend American cities, but to send a message on behalf of regional allies. It may have looked like surgical precision from the skies—but on the ground, it's a policy contradiction wrapped in cinematic déjà vu. 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Hindustan Times

21 hours ago

• Hindustan Times

Spider-Man vs. antihero Punisher? Marvel's newest crossover might be its most intense yet; everything to know

No matter how much superhero fatigue is out there, Spider-Man always seems to swing above the noise. Tom Holland's take on the web-slinger remains a fan favourite, and now with Spider-Man: Brand New Day officially on the horizon, Marvel and Sony have dropped a major update. There's a new villain in town, and he's a familiar face. Spider-Man and the Punisher Enter: Jon Bernthal. Best known for playing Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, Bernthal has officially joined the upcoming Spider-Man movie, which begins shooting in England this summer and is set to release on July 31, 2026. Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) is directing, and the film will see the return of Zendaya as MJ as well as Jacob Batalon as Ned. Also joining the mix is Stranger Things breakout Sadie Sink. Having Bernthal's Punisher in the mix immediately hints at a grittier tone for the film. Known for his brutal, no-nonsense vigilante justice — fists, knives, and guns over gadgets and spells — the Punisher brings a raw intensity that could challenge Peter Parker in ways we haven't seen on screen before. As one fan said on X, 'There is so much they could do with this! Love to see a fight with Frank combating Peter's superhuman abilities with his tactical knowledge and planning.' Bernthal's Frank Castle first appeared in Netflix's Daredevil before headlining his own two-season series. He recently reprised the role in Daredevil: Born Again, and this new casting puts him squarely back in the MCU spotlight. The internet, of course, has lost it. 'I literally screamed. Best news I've heard in a while,' one fan wrote. Another added, 'Can't believe we're finally going to see the Punisher on screen alongside Spider-Man. It's been a long time coming.' So far, Brand New Day is shaping up to be anything but business as usual. The two stars will also be seen together in Christopher Nolan's upcoming movie adaptation of The Odyssey, which is due to release in July, 2026.

India.com

a day ago

• India.com

From Star Wars to Avengers Endgame: 7 costliest films ever made

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