Scarlett Johansson reaches private settlement with Disney over Black Widow lawsuit

Scarlett Johansson has reached a private settlement with Disney over her Black Widow lawsuit, just weeks after her lawyers pushed for a public battle.

Scarlett Johansson has reached a settlement with Disney. Picture: JEAN-BAPTISTE LACROIX / AFP

Scarlett Johansson has reached a settlement with Disney over claims the company breached her Black Widow contract.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed but both parties said they had managed to reach a “mutual agreement”.

“I am happy to have resolved our differences with Disney,” Johansson said in a statement. “I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve done together over the years and have greatly enjoyed my creative relationship with the team. I look forward to continuing our collaboration in years to come.”

Disney Studios chairman Alan Bergman echoed the sentiment, saying in a statement: “I’m very pleased that we have been able to come to a mutual agreement with Scarlett Johansson regarding Black Widow.”

The settlement is fairly abrupt given the public barbs both Johansson’s lawyers and Disney have exchanged over the past few months.

The US actor, 36, hit Disney with a lawsuit in July, alleging that the debut of her solo Marvel film Black Widow on Disney’s streaming platform, Disney+, was a breach of her contract. It was understood she claimed to have lost more than $67 million in earnings as a result.

Scarlett Johansson has reached a private settlement with Disney. Picture: Jay Maidment/Marvel Studios

Disney swiftly hit back at her claims, saying Johansson was displaying a “callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Disney then filed a motion to move the lawsuit to binding arbitration in August, meaning they were attempting to resolve the matter privately instead of going to court.

The move was slammed by Johansson’s lawyer, John Berlinski, who at the time seemed hellbent on making the matter public.

“After initially responding to this litigation with a misogynistic attack against Scarlett Johansson, Disney is now, predictably, trying to hide its misconduct in a confidential arbitration,” Mr Berlinski said in late August.

Terms of Johansson and Disney’s settlement have remained disclosed. Picture: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

“Why is Disney so afraid of litigating this case in public? Because it knows that Marvel’s promises to give Black Widow a typical theatrical release ‘like its other films’ had everything to do with guaranteeing that Disney wouldn’t cannibalise box office receipts in order to boost Disney+ subscriptions.

“Yet that is exactly what happened — and we look forward to presenting the overwhelming evidence that proves it.”

It comes at the same time as Johansson’s new baby, a boy named Cosmo, with her husband Colin Jost in August. It is the couple’s first child together.