Scarlett Johansson's Lawsuit Against Disney Has The Internet Divided
The internet is taking sides in the lawsuit between Scarlett Johansson and Disney. First, in case you missed it, here's what's going on: The actress, who has starred in several Marvel movies as well as dozens of other must-see films, is suing the House of Mouse because she says they breached her contract (via IMDb). According to CNN Business, the star of "Black Widow" says she agreed to act in the film with the understanding it would be a straight-to-theater release — but the movie will also be simultaneously available to stream on Disney+.
According to the suit, the dual release will directly affect Johansson's earnings from the film. The star's attorney, John Berlinski, told Variety, "It's no secret that Disney is releasing films like 'Black Widow' directly onto Disney Plus to increase subscribers and thereby boost the company's stock price — and that it's hiding behind COVID-19 as a pretext to do so."
He added, "But ignoring the contracts of the artists responsible for the success of its films in furtherance of this short-sighted strategy violates their rights and we look forward to proving as much in court."
Disney responds to Scarlett Johansson's lawsuit and so do fans
According to Variety, Disney released the following statement in light of Johansson's shocking lawsuit: "There is no merit whatsoever to this filing. The lawsuit is especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic."
Now that the battle lines have been drawn, Twitter users are lighting up the social media platform with their own takes on the situation. And let's just say the reactions are all over the place, with one person tweeting, "I'm not personally a fan of Scarlett Johansson for myriad reasons but the idea that Disney, a corporation, is chastising one individual for 'callous disregard' to the pandemic when they opened their theme parks in summer 2020 makes you just wanna laaaugh laugh laugh."
Another fan took the actor's side as well, tweeting, "when someone says you breached a contract and you start talking about global pandemics you 100% breached that contract."
Not everyone is on Scarlett Johansson's side
Many other Twitter users defended the star of "Black Widow," with one commenting, "again i'm not a scarjo fan but if they're taking advantage of her this way i can't imagine what they might be doing to other actors who don't have the legal teams to speak up this way." Likewise, another Twitter user noted, "scarjo bad blablabla we know this, but the people laughing at this because its a 'rich white person problem' or whatever really need to stop and think if this is how disney treats someone like /scarlett johansson/, how do you think they treat their workers, including bipoc+lgbt?"
But while many Twitter users were in ScarJo's corner, many are not, with one Twitter user opining, "Poor #ScarlettJohansson I really feel for her. I don't know how she manages to live on the money she's got."
"#ScarlettJohansson is really suing #Disney. Hmm , she is in for a rude awakening!!" tweeted another Disney supporter.
Twitter hasn't forgotten about Scarlett Johansson's past controversies
In a brutally honest post about the lawsuit between Johansson and Disney, someone else tweeted, "I might have sympathy for #ScarlettJohansson if she hadn't already proven she is the definition of an entitled white woman. Disney should have never worked with her in the first place after her transphobia, yellow-face, and history of being unaware of her own white privileged [sic]."
The individual was referring to how Johansson was previously criticized for playing a Japanese character in the movie "Ghost in the Shell" (via Pride.com). She was originally cast as a transgender man in another picture, but withdrew from the project after sharp backlash.
In 2019, she responded by saying, "You know, as an actor I should be allowed to play any person, or any tree, or any animal because that is my job and the requirements of my job. I feel like it's a trend in my business and it needs to happen for various social reasons, yet there are times it does get uncomfortable when it affects the art because I feel art should be free of restrictions" (via The Washington Post).
To be fair, she later walked back those comments.