4. Sony Announces Female-Led Amazing Spider-Man Spin-Off
Despite being a trailblazer for the superhero genre, Marvel Studios has been hesitant about giving a female superhero her own film. On the other side of the coin, Warner Bros. has remained optimistic about a Wonder Woman film, but we've seen little to no progress on that front. Now, it appears that Sony may in fact beat both studios to the punch and release a female-led superheroine film first. The studio kicked the week off by announcing that they had a female-led superhero film, which will spin off of their Amazing Spider-Man franchise, slated for 2017. They didn't give any details about which character it may focus on, or which characters they even own the rights to, but they have a writer in place, Christopher Nolan's sister-in-law Lisa Joy Nolan (Westworld, Pushing Daisies), and are moving full steam ahead. The studio may have shown a bit of hesitancy and uncertainty with the Spider-Man films (having recently delayed The Amazing Spider-Man 3 all the way to 2018), but they're showing tremendous confidence in their spin-off films. They have Sinister Six slated for November 2016, this female Spider-Man spinoff slated for 2017, and the Venom-centric spin-off Venom Carnage tentatively slated for 2017. Looking at the slate so far, and which characters they likely own the rights to, it's a safe bet to say that either Black Cat or Spider-Woman will be getting her own film. But, anything could happen, so we'll just have to keep a close eye on this one, and see if the other studios retaliate by announcing their own female superhero films.