Token sexy heroine is all anybody wants from Black Widow- that's her job.

The problem isn't whitewashing….that is never a problem- just a way to generate ink. The story itself is too Japanese…post-war identity, paranoia, and what not. Ghost in the Shell is flamingly paranoid.

My guess is they probably wouldn't. Not for two hours.

Hollywood does not get that big a cut on foreign box office, particularly Asia. They are obsessed with market-share, and dump product accordingly.

Ratings for SHIELD are higher. Marvel has to consider that. Maybe Black Widow/Winter Soldier pair up? Both Soviet thugs… would fit in the same world.

A spy with a mysterious past is not well served by an origin story. You lose the mysterious part.

Did you know Roddenberry made Captain Kirk a womanizer simply to pull some sort of female audience?
He improved his craft significantly with Next Generation, when he created Diana Troy, Space Strumpet!
Having her toy with Worf and Riker put the ratings-required "relationships" squarely in female hands…to the relief of…

To be fair, there were "nice guy" alternatives. Gregory Peck, Elvis Presley, Rock Hudson, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman (and, of course, Cary Grant falls into this category). But, except maybe Cary Grant, they were alternatives, not the dominant strain.
The "New Man" type emerges in the late 70's…with Alan Alda playing…

Who were the legendary male movie sex symbols of the 60's and early 70's?
Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, Sean Connery, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty.

That was your father. Not you.

Connery was chosen largely on the basis of sex appeal. Roger Moore was chosen largely to tone it down a bit.
Most men really don't like or admire womanizers. Moore made Bond's womanizing less believable…and Bond more likeable. Roger Moore was more four-quadrant as Bond.
Believe it or not, most men prefer action heroes…

You get to be shallow now…fantasizing over fitness instructors. Fifty Shades of Grey is your limit…
Any USO girl of 1942 could eat you for lunch. They had to deal with combat killers on a daily basis…some right off the front lines.
You have seen the old movie line…"How's it goin', killer?" Now you know where it came…

Not really…"special forces" is- they called 'em "commandos" back then.

Just as a note… a lot of those WW2-era "tough cookies" were a godsend to tough, angry, damaged combat vets returning from WW2 and Korea.
They knew when to be sympathetic…when to stick it out… and when not to put up with any crap.
A lot of vets would not have made it without them.

Depended on the woman. Most women don't write fanfic.
I am pretty certain my grandma would have preferred Vaughn.
She didn't like Stacey Keach as Mike Hammer because she thought he was too soft… "too much with the girls!"
As I said, her generation was pretty tough…and often liked tough men.

The U.S. State Department (and British Foreign Office) want it back…to justify the U.S. remaining in Europe…and keep the military/industrial complex happy. Kind of like Mystery Men, when the hero let the bad guy escape so he could keep his sponsors.

The two main leads of the original U.N.C.L.E. were chosen specifically to appeal to women…David McCallum for the girls, and Robert Vaughn for adult women. T.V. knew how to draw female audiences quite well.

Women loved Connery's dangerous, aggressive, womanizing Bond…just like an earlier generation fantasized about Valentino's "sheik" and the brooding and dangerous Sussue Hayakawa.
Playing soccer and watching Katniss in The Hunger Games doesn't make modern girls tough. Early-to-mid Twentieth Century American women were…

Women do not feel they can handle "tall, dark, handsome, men-of-the-world" anymore.
Connery's Bond would have them blowing their rape whistles from a block away!
Even Captain Kirk has to be a silly pretty-boy now.

They all look like that now. Women in the 60's preferred male stars older= more masculine, worldly and mysterious. The Beatles were for teenieboppers.
Women today have fewer skills for dealing with men. That is why we live in the pretty-boy era.