Spider-Man Spin-Offs: Black Cat/Silver Sable Joins Venom On Sony's Slate
Thor Ragnarok writer in, Kevin Feige out.
If you thought Sony's enthusiasm to announce their Venom spin-off was unexpected, just wait until you hear what they've just announced.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio are pushing ahead with plans for an extended Spidey universe and their next project will be a Black Cat/Silver Sable movie, written by Thor: Ragnarok's Chris Yost. Or at least RE-written by him, as it will be an expansion of an existing draft from Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy.
The report states that Sony have been working on the film for some time, and that it had been covertly in development under the label "secret female spinoff project." Catchy.
As with Venom, they don't yet have a director, but they're looking at a fall start date, so that shouldn't take too long to get off the ground. Inevitably, it would be right to give a female director the reigns - not least to redress the balance in the genre.
There had previously been talk of a Black Cat movie spinning out of The Amazing Spider-Man (this might well still be that project), as Felicia Hardy was introduced in that universe - played by Felicity Jones. If the name wasn't a hint to non-believers, she's basically Marvel's rip-off of Catwoman. Silver Sable on the other hand is a European mercenary decked out in silver who hunts criminals. Is this Sony's play to beat X-Force to the X-Force money?
There's also a small update on Venom, as THR say they're working on directors now.
But all of that pails into insignificance next to the news from THR's Borys Kit that neither film will be linked to the MCU - you know, where actual Spider-Man is - and that Kevin Feige (the supremo who was supposedly going to be overseeing Sony's other Spidey projects to actually help make them good) is NOT involved.
That is not good news.
The only way this can be redeemed is if Sony announce immediately that they're going with Miles Morales as their Spider-Man and setting this in a different universe to the MCU's Peter Parker, as in the comics. And for God's sake, get Feige on the phone, if only for a little scholarly advice.
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