- Sony is reportedly working on a female-driven Marvel movie with TV director S.J. Clarkson.
- The character the movie will be based on is still unconfirmed, but rumors suggest Sony’s first female-centric superhero movie will center around Spider-Man comic book character Madame Web.
- Clarkson has previously directed episodes of Jessica Jones and The Defenders for Marvel TV.
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Before the novel coronavirus pandemic brought Hollywood to a screeching halt, one of the more intriguing storylines for fans of comic book films was the future of the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters (SPUMC). Sony made it clear that Spider-Man wasn’t long for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Venom was the beginning of the studio’s renewed dedication to bringing the characters whose rights it controlled to the silver screen.
Both Morbius and a sequel to Venom had been confirmed prior to the pandemic, but on Wednesday, a Variety report revealed that another movie is currently in the works, and TV director S.J. Clarkson has been chosen to develop the secret project. All we know is that the movie will focus on a female character — a first for the SPUMC.
The subject of the movie is still a mystery, but insiders tell Variety that it will probably be based on Madame Web, who made her debut in The Amazing Spider-Man #210 in November 1980. Unlike the villains (or antiheroes) Morbius and Venom, Madame Web supports Spider-Man, using her psychic powers to aid his heroic pursuits.
Sources say that a writer hasn’t been picked to write the script, and no one has been cast in the movie either. There’s a chance that Sony will recruit an A-list actor for the role and hire a writer to develop the movie around the person the studio hires. Unsurprisingly, Sony was not willing to comment on the rumors.
“In the comics, Madame Web is depicted as an elderly woman with myasthenia gravis and thus was connected to a life support system that looked like a spider web,” Variety expounds. “Due to her age and medical condition, Madame Web never actively fought any villains. For that reason, sources have stressed it’s possible the project could turn into something else. The studio has a list of possible stars, such as Charlize Theron and Amy Adams, but stress that nobody has committed or even met to read for the part yet.”
Variety says that having a female-driven property in Sony’s Marvel film universe has been a priority for the studio, and bringing Clarkson on board is the first step to making it a reality. S.J. Clarkson has been working in TV for nearly two decades, with directing credits on Orange is the New Black, Jessica Jones, Succession, and more.
