Olivia Wilde To Direct A Female-Centric Marvel Movie, And It's Probably Spider-Woman

Filmmaker and actor Olivia Wilde has reportedly signed a deal with Sony Pictures to direct a Marvel film project revolving around a female character in the universe. Not many details have been disclosed, but the film is expected to centre around Spider-Woman (or at the very least a character sporting the name ‘Spider-Woman’). Although this news is yet to be officially confirmed, but seeing that Sony has a partnership with Marvel to produce films based on the Spider-Man characters, the speculations are not unfounded. Additionally, after the news about her participation in the project went live, the director herself retweeted an article reporting on the same, with a spider emoji in the caption, fuelling the speculations that her secret Marvel project is, in fact, a Spider-Woman movie.

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It also seems like the film will be a female-led project. Olivia Wilde is said to be writing the script alongside screenwriter Katie Silberman. Amy Pascal, known for producing Ghostbusters and Spider-Man: Homecoming, is on board as well. Additionally, Spider-Man: Far From Home executive producer Rachel O'Connor is also attached to the project. This film, alongside the upcoming Black Widow movie, will be part of Marvel Phase 4.

What You Should Know

• There are speculations that the Wilde-directed Marvel film shall be about Spider-Woman.
• Director Olivia Wilde herself seemed to confirm the news by retweeting a spider emoji, alongside an article reporting her participation in the project.
• This will reportedly be a female-led project, written by Katie Silberman. The production will be managed by Rachel O’Connor and Amy Pascal.
• Sony has been working on multiple Marvel movies. It had signed director S. J. Clarkson, whose credits include series like Dexter, House, Orange Is The New Black and Jessica Jones, to develop the first female-centric movie from Sony’s catalogue of characters.
• Previously, the Spider-Woman costume has been donned by several Marvel Comics characters, starting with Jessica Drew in the 1970s and later including Mary-Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy.
• There are four female-directed superhero/action movies which have a release date for this year director: Birds of Prey, Mulan, Black Widow, Wonder Woman 1984 and Eternals.

History of Spider-Woman in the Marvel Universe

The Spider-Woman character has been the alter ego of several characters in the Spider-Man timeline over the years, including Jessica Drew, Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson. The original Spider-Woman was Jessica Drew–a character introduced to Marvel Comics in the late 1970s. Her character did not have any significant tie to Spider-Man. Instead, her origin involved her being injected by her father with a serum containing irradiated spiders' blood. Over the decades she has donned many hats, including being a brainwashed HYDRA agent, a member of the Avengers, and a private detective.

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Hence, it’s no surprise that Jessica Drew is the character that Marvel fans think of when they hear of Spider-Woman. But what makes this development tricky is that there has emerged another prominent character who also goes by that name: the alternate universe Gwen Stacy who was bitten by a radioactive spider. While she is commonly referred to as Spider-Gwen in her solo series comic, in the actual continuity the character goes by the moniker Spider-Woman (which is something that was notably included in the film Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse during the character's official introduction). It thus remains to be seen which of these characters will wear the costume of Spider-Woman this time.

Dyuti Gupta is an intern with SheThePeople.TV.