Olivia Wilde drops hint about directing secret Marvel flick

It looks like Sony Pictures isn’t just committed to giving the world more top-notch female heroes from its roster of Marvel characters, but behind-the-scenes it’s also growing its list of female directors with Olivia Wilde as the latest director to join the party with a new top-secret gig.Although, maybe the project isn’t that secret after all. Shortly after news broke on Deadline that Wilde is set to direct one of the company’s upcoming female-led comic movies, Wilde herself went on Twitter to drop a clue: a single emoji of a spider and a link to the article. About an hour later she also went on Instagram and posted a photo of her three-year-old daughter, Daisy (whom she shares with fiance Jason Sudeikis), wearing a Spider-Man costume. So, all signs point to Spider-Woman at this point.

? https://t.co/hkchsQsaaX

— olivia wilde (@oliviawilde) August 19, 2020

Spider-Woman has been the alter-ego of several characters in the Spider-Man world over the years (including Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson), but the original was Jessica Drew. As a young girl, the character suffered uranium poisoning, and so her father injected her with an untested concoction of spider venoms in order to cure her. The process was slower than he’d hoped, and Drew was a woman by the time she was able to rejoin society. Naturally, that meant that despite her newfound super abilities, she also didn’t really know how to interact with others. Cue up plenty of potential laughs and drama, that is, if Wilde decides to go that direction with the character.[video_embed id='1690952']RELATED: How Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein became best friends while filming 'Booksmart'[/video_embed]In addition to (potentially) getting the web-slinging going on Spider-Woman, Sony is also working on a Madame Webb movie (with director S.J. Clarkson), and it's eyeing a Black Cat and Silver Sable launch, too. It’s worth noting that, in total, Sony has the rights to Spider-Man and about 900-related Marvel Comics characters. Although Sony and Disney (which now owns Marvel) have attempted to work out a deal in the past following Spidey’s appearance in the MCU, those talks fell through last year and Sony is now planning about seven years of big-screen offerings on its own. Thankfully for fans, both sides eventually did see eye-to-eye where Tom Holland is concerned though.According to Deadline, Wilde almost passed up the Spider-Woman opportunity just because she’s kind of in high-demand between acting and directing next year. In the end though, launching her own female superhero was just too hard to say no to. Especially since Booksmart co-writier Katie Silberman is writing the script and Amy Pascal is producing; the trio already have an established working bond thanks to their partnership on a Christmas film at Universal that they’re planning to do together first.Her next major directorial flick—the psychological period thriller Don’t Worry Darling starring herself, Shia LaBeouf, Florence Pugh, Dakota Johnson and Chris Pine—is in pre-production now.The star and director is just one of many female directors who have recently been hired to oversee big-budget comic movies. This year and next fans can look forward to Patty Jenkins’ take on Wonder Woman 1984, Cate Shortland’s debut of Black Widow, Chloé Zhao’s anticipated release of The Eternals and Nia DaCosta's Captain Marvel 2.[video_embed id='2002688']BEFORE YOU GO: Natalie Portman is excited to 'get jacked' to play Mighty Thor[/video_embed]