Robert Downey Jr hosts a special lunch for the women of Marvel but where is Scarlett Johansson?

Now that 'Avengers: Endgame' has released, Marvel's future lies in the hands of women. So it was fitting to have Iron Man aka Robert Downey Jr, the man who heralded a new era for MCU 10 years back, host a lunch for the women of Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Downey Jr posted a photo of the lunch on his Instagram and wrote, "#tbt #throwback #flashback to the #Women of @marvelstudios #mcu lunch I had the pleasure of hosting... #girlpower #epic #bts (📸 @jimmy_rich ) #TeamStark #thankyou(sic)"

Add WION as a Preferred Source

*Spoilers ahead

From the looks of it, the photo seems to have been taken while the team was still shooting for 'Avengers: Endgame'. The lunch had Brie Larson (Captain Marvel), Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Pots), Evangeline Lilly (The Wasp), Dana Gurira(Okoye), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Letitia Wright (Shuri), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Pom Klementieff (Mantis) and Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlett Witch)in attendance. From the photos, it looks like the happy bunch had a great time lunching with Tony Stark but one can't help but wonder where is Scarlett Johansson who plays Black Widow in the film- one of the original six Avengers. The photo could have been taken while filming the climax scene- which did not feature Johansson as her character Black Widow had already died by then in the film.

Karen Gillan had earlier mentioned to an entertainment website that how Downey Jr was known to organize lunches for cast members while filming 'Avengers' series. “When you are shooting a film like this, there is a lot of time between setups because they do the huge laying of the set and the props. Everyone has a lot of time to hang out and get to know each other. Robert is the one who hosts the lunch for everyone, that’s really nice. We all get to interact with each other a lot.”

Fans may recall that during the big battle scene, Marvel celebrated its girl power by choreographing an action sequence involving all its women together who help Captain Marvel to take the infinity stones to Ant-Man in the middle of the battleground. The scene was greeted with applause and cheers in almost every cinema hall.

The scene also gave rise to a theory- which so far remains only a theory- that it may give cinematic rise to the A-Force.The A-Force was introduced as part of Marvel Comics' 'Secret Wars' crossover event in 2015 where multiple parallel Marvel universes collapsed into each other and were destroyed, and from the ashes, Doctor Doom created Battleworld, where most of the heroes from both universes battle with each other.

Battleworld was divided into 41 “domains,” one of which was called Arcadia which was led by all-female defenders commonly known as A-Force. Some of the members of A-Force are characters who have already appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Whether Marvel enchashes on this powerful scene and subsequently create movies around the 'A-Force' is something we will have to wait and watch.