Spidey senses all over the world will be tingling at the news of a new Marvel movie in the works, and it might just be Spider-Woman.
Deadline broke the news that Booksmart director Olivia Wilde would be developing a film centered on a female Marvel character, albeit for Sony – meaning it won't be part of the official MCU roster – and Wilde was quick to respond to the story on Twitter with a telling spider emoji...
🕷 https://t.co/hkchsQsaaXAugust 19, 2020
But what does this mean for the film? It's almost certainly several years away from release, and will have yet to enter production. As to the protagonist, it could well be a take on the Spider-Woman character, most commonly attributed to Jessica Drew in the comics – though we wouldn't be surprised if the film was centered on Spider-Gwen, who featured in Sony's excellent Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse animated film in 2018.
The tweet has certainly received some traction online, with over 88K likes at the time of writing. Notable actors Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll) and Hugh Laurie (House) both tweeted their support in the comments, while one of the most liked comments ships Star Wars' Daisy Ridley to play the Spider-Woman role.
What a tangled web we weave
The Spider-Man mythology is certainly having a moment, with Marvel and Sony both continuing to put our cinematic projects, and a Spider-Verse sequel expected to release in late 2022, along with Venom 2, Morbius, and Madame Webb films all reportedly in the works.
In the world of games, the exclusive availability of Spider-Man in Marvel's Avengers has caused some controversy, while the incoming Spider-Man: Miles Morales game for PS5 is the main thing we're excited to play when the next PlayStation launches later this year.
More details for this Spider-Woman movie are likely a while off, but this initial news can only be a good thing for the MCU, which historically has struggled to put women front and center in its films. With the likes of Captain Marvel in recent months, and Black Widow scheduled for release on November 1 (after a delay from May), that seems to be slowly changing.
