Olivia Wilde who caught all the major studios’ attention directing the incredibly entertaining and even more incredibly undervalued Booksmart last year, has just inked a deal to “direct and develop a secret Marvel film project revolving around a female character” according to an exclusive story in Deadline.
The project is rumored to be Spider-Woman, a fact that Wilde herself hinted at when she replied to the Deadline story by tweeting a single spider-emoji.
While this would seem to confirm the rumor, it does lead to an entirely new set of questions:
For instance, which Spider-Woman are we talking about? The classic character is Jessica Drew, Agent of SHIELD, Avenger, Agent of SWORD and best friend to Jessica Jones. But in an alternate dimension, Gwen Stacy was bit by a radioactive spider and became an incredibly popular version of Spider-Woman known to comics fans as “Spider-Gwen.” And Marvel made yet another Spider-themed female hero when they launched the adventures of Cindy Moon, a.k.a. Silk, a heroine bit by the same radioactive spider that bit Peter Parker. Frankly, those are just the popular choices. Marvel easily has a half-dozen more characters that have taken up the mantle over the years.
But a more intriguing question is “How is this a Marvel movie?” Marvel famously sold the rights to Spider-Man and all associated characters to Sony years ago. They negotiated a deal with Sony to get Peter into the MCU for three movies, then extended the deal for another — but projects involving supporting character in the Spider-Man universe, such as Venom and the upcoming Morbius the Living Vampire had no Marvel involvement at all.
So is Wilde’s Marvel movie actually a Sony movie? Did Sony and Marvel hammer out a deal to share Spider-Woman as well? Or is there a different Spider-themed female superhero we’re just not thinking of? (Perhaps, Black Widow 2?)
Only time will tell.