Ray Winstone has revealed he almost quit Black Widow.

The British actor made his Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) debut as Russian general Dreykov, the 2021 film’s main villain, alongside Scarlett Johansson in the title role.

Winstone revealed in an interview with Radio Times magazine that the reshoots on Black Widow were so “soul-destroying” that he wanted to walk away from the project entirely.

“It was fine until you have to do the reshoots,” he said. “Then you find out that a few producers have come down, and your performance is too much, it’s too strong… That’s the way Marvel works. It can be soul-destroying because you feel like you’re doing great work.

“I actually said, ‘You ought to recast it because that was it for me.’ And you end up doing it again because you’re contracted to do it. Otherwise you end up in court. It’s like being kicked in the balls.”

While Johansson and Winstone’s MCU runs ended with Black Widow, their co-stars Florence Pugh and David Harbour are set to reprise their roles in the upcoming Thunderbolts movie.

Black Widow was delayed several times from its 2020 release schedule due to the pandemic and was eventually released simultaneously in cinemas and on Disney+. Johansson sued Disney over this release strategy, claiming it breached her contract, and the dispute was settled two months later.

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