Many actors dream of being part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; however, in the case of Emily Blunt – unfortunately, the superhero movie stars didn’t align. It turns out that Blunt was originally up to play one of the best MCU characters in the franchise – Black Widow – but had to turn down the opportunity thanks to one of the worst movies in her career.
During an interview on The Howard Stern show, Blunt revealed that she turned down the shot to be in the MCU due to contractual obligations to the 2010 flick Gulliver’s Travels. Starring alongside Jack Black, Blunt played the role of Princess Mary in the adventure movie – which follows the titular character’s life after he meets a tiny civilisation and becomes their hero.
While Gulliver’s Travels did well at the box office earning $237.4 million on a $112 million budget, it was slammed by critics and, at the time of writing, holds a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And Blunt was pretty adamant that fans know that she ultimately didn’t want to be on the project.
“I actually do want to clean up the story on Gulliver’s Travels,” Blunt said. “I was contracted to do Gulliver’s Travels. I didn’t want to do Gulliver’s Travels.”
The star continued to explain how the situation was upsetting personally. “It was a bit of a heartbreaker for me, because I take such pride in the decisions that I make, and they mean so much to me, the films that I do”.
However, Blunt committed to the family movie as she didn’t want it hanging over her head, and despite her personal feelings towards the production, upheld a professional atmosphere on set.
“No one knew, and I also didn’t talk about it with anyone on set or anything, because there are a lot of lovely people in it who were heaven to work with, and I actually had a really good time. I had a laugh with all of them.”
The role of Black Widow eventually went to Scarlett Johansson, who portrayed the character in multiple Avenger movies before receiving her own stand-alone action movie in 2021.
For more top picks, here are our lists of the best Emily Blunt movies of all time and the best movies ever made.