Though the progress of its rebooted and ever-expanding Spider-Man universe isn’t moving forward as it might like, with road bumps such as having to move** The Amazing Spider-Man 3** from 2016 into 2018, Sony appears ready to head off in interesting directions. Deadline is reporting that the studio is figuring out a film featuring a female lead superhero for 2017.
No details have been announced about who might be the focus of such a story, only that Burn Notice veteran Lisa Joy, who is working on the new Westworld HBO series with husband Jonathan Nolan, has been hired to write a script by producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach.
Speculation will naturally gear up now as to which of the Spider-Universe’s characters will get her shot at a solo film, with possibilities including Silver Sable and Spider-Woman. Then, of course, there’s Black Cat, AKA Felicia Hardy, who was nodded to in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 with Felicity Jones’ character, but wasn’t actually established as a masked vigilante herself.
It would seem to be a good move for Sony, especially when other studios don’t have much in way of leading female superheroes on their cinematic roster – even with DC’s unveiling of Wonder Woman, she’ll be sharing screen time with Batman and Superman. Yet with the success of films like Lucy and news that Guardians Of The Galaxy’s audience made up of a higher percentage of female cinemagoers than any previous Marvel film, clearly there is a market.
As for the rest of the Spider-universe, Sony has Drew Goddard focused on a Sinister Six film for 2016, while Venom (which could be called Venom Carnage)** **remains floating in release limbo and Andrew Garfield’s Amazing Spider-Man hangs around until that aforementioned 2018 date.