Marvel has a history of not supporting female characters, and the latest story to come out of that company's camp is that it had a chance to feature a female villain in Iron Man 3, but decided that a male villain would sell more toys.
It's pretty much the same story fans have heard before: Marvel doesn't think that boys will buy toys featuring girl characters, and Disney, Marvel's parent company, wants girls to only buy its princess merchandise. Even as recently as last year, Marvel chose to include a male figure with an Age of Ultron airplane and motorcycle set, although those two items are actually signature to the female character of Black Widow in that movie.
That movie marketing also put very little emphasis on Black Widow, with just a few items featuring her at all. Although she is a big part of the Avengers team, she still gets treated as if she wasn't one of the stars of the movie. Scarlet Witch, another female character in Age of Ultron, also got completely left out of promotional items for that film.
So, it's probably not a complete surprise that Marvel decided that a female villain in Iron Man 3 wouldn't work, because they'd have to make a female toy to go along with it.
"There was an early draft of Iron Man 3 where we had an inkling of a problem, which is that we had a female character who was the villain in the draft," screenwriter Shane Black said to Uproxx. "We had finished the script and we were given a no-holds-barred memo saying that cannot stand and we've changed our minds because, after consulting, we've decided that toy won't sell as well if it's a female."
Black said that was typical of the Marvel corporate attitude at the time, but he did insist that the problem no longer persists at the company. That's evident in rumors suggesting that the film studio finally plans on giving Black Widow her own solo movie.
"We think she's an amazing character," Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige said to Deadline. "We think Scarlett Johansson's portrayal of her is amazing. She's a lead Avenger and has amazing stories in her own right to tell that we think would be fun to turn into a stand-alone franchise."
The company also has plans to bring the female Captain Marvel to the big screen, too, as part of its cinematic universe.
So, although Marvel has committed many injustices against its female characters and fan base, fans can now be hopeful that the days of changing villains' genders for toy sales are officially over.
