With rumors circulating today that Michelle McLaren is being eyed by Sony to direct a ‘Spider-Woman’ film, something about it didn’t sit right with me.
After doing a bit of digging, I’ve recovered a list of the characters Sony holds the rights to, and it’s very interesting to note that Sony does not exclusively hold the rights to Jessica Drew, the character synonymous with the title of Spider-Woman.
A while back, ‘Morbius’ writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway were tapped to pen a script for a ‘Madame Web’ solo film, but it seems strange that Sony would want a movie about Cassandra Webb, a blind elderly woman hooked up to life support watching over the multiverse.
Now, if we look past Jessica Drew and Cassandra Webb, we’ll reach the second Spider-Woman and Madame Web: Julia Carpenter.
Julia Carpenter became the second Spider-Woman after being given a mix of spider venom and plant extract that gave her a power set similar to Spider-Man’s. After retiring and then re-emerging as the heroine Arachne, Carpenter then became the second Madame Web after Cassandra Webb was mortally wounded. When she became the new Madame Web, she inherited Webb’s prophetic powers and blindness.
Now, I have a few reasons for believing ‘Spider-Woman’ and ‘Madame Web’ could be the same films.
- Jessica Drew is not fully owned by Sony, they have shared rights with Marvel, which means Feige and co. would have to sign off on the production of this film.
- Jessica Drew is synonymous with the title of ‘Spider-Woman’, a fake-out with which character is actually leading the film wouldn’t be pleasing to fans.
- Does it really make sense for the original Madame Webb to have her own film?
- If Feige wouldn’t sign off on Sony making a solo Jessica Drew film it makes sense they’d pivot to the second version of the character under a different name.
- The ‘Spider-Woman’ news today said Michele McLaren was being eyed to direct with Sony wanting an Alicia Vikander-type to star, but no writer. We know ‘Madame Web’ has writers, so if you put it all together you get a film with a finished script that’s searching for a director and star, rather than the hunt for a director and actor to take on a script for a different film that doesn’t yet even have writers.
There’s no reason they couldn’t be two separate films, but it just makes far more sense for them to be the same movie. And even if they aren’t the same movie, there’s a very good chance one of the two will be the Sony Marvel movie that will bow out in October 2021.
‘Morbius’ is the next Sony-Marvel film, which will hit theaters July 31st. Jared Leto is starring in the pic for director Daniel Espinosa. ‘Venom 2’ is also currently filming, with Tom Hardy returning to the role of Eddie Brock and Andy Serkis directing. It will release October 2nd.