S.J. Clarkson to Direct Female Superhero Movie from Sony, Marvel

The collaboration between Sony and Marvel has produced recent films such as Spider-Man: Far From Home, Venom, and the upcoming Morbius. Now it looks like they have another project in development that will be starring woman in the titular role with a female director behind the camera. There is no info yet on which Marvel character the film will be about, but Sony has announced that director S.J. Clarkson is on board to direct.

Clarkson is an experienced television director with credits on episodes for shows including The Defenders, Jessica Jones, Orange is the New Black, Dexter, Bates Motel, and the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel.

Rumors of a secret female superhero film from Sony have been floating around for years now. In 2014, Sony announced a project in the works, and in 2017 that project was confirmed to be about Marvel characters Silver Sable and Black Cat. Both characters in the comics have run-ins or relationships with Spider-Man, meaning there is potential for crossover with the Tom Holland Spider-Man universe. There is no confirmation though that this announcement is for the same project, which has clearly been delayed over the past few years.

Another rumor from Variety states that the film may cover Madame Web, who in the comics is an elderly woman hooked up to a web-like life support system and so does not actively engage in combat with villains. The premise of this does not sound particularly in alignment with other Marvel film projects, though of course the claim is still a rumor without confirmation from Sony.

In 2015, a small scandal erupted when emails from Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter surfaced online allegedly denying the financial viability of superhero movies led by women. This may be partial cause for why it has been an arduous journey to get a project with a woman in the lead into Sony’s Marvel line-up. Disney’s Marvel has made progress with Captain Marvel and Black Widow, and DC has proven women in the lead can earn money with Wonder Woman in 2017, so it looks like Sony will be next up to bat.