Amazing Spider-Man Female Superhero Spinoff: Five Possibilities

Earlier this week, a rumor came out that Sony was planning an Amazing Spider-Man film spinoff starring a female lead, likely for release in 2017.

While this rumor remains unconfirmed, it's led a lot of fans to speculate about which character the film might be spotlighting. It's been a long time since we've seen a female led superhero film, and we still haven't gotten a very good one. If the rumor is true, the film will likely have a lot of people very interested.

We've compiled a list of five possible characters who could be leading Sony's spinoff film, if said film is actually happening. Some are obvious, others less so, but all are female characters with links to Peter Parker, making them a possibility.

Black Cat

Black Cat is the most obvious answer to this question. She's a popular, fan favorite character, and she's already been introduced to the Amazing Spider-Man film universe, or at least her alter ego, Felicia Hardy, has.

Hardy, as played by Felicity Jones in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, is Harry Osborn's assistant. The comic book character, however, has a cat burglar alter ego called the Black Cat.

The cheap and easy way to describe Black Cat is to say that she is to Spider-Man what Catwoman is to Batman. She's Peter Parker's "work wife." The two share a flirtatious relationship that can never exist between their alter egos, and she comes to represent the adventurous lifestyle that Peter can only live when he has his mask on, free of real life responsibilities.

It wouldn't be hard to write the cat burglar alter ego into Jones' version of Felicia, simply assuming that it's a side of her we didn't get to see in Amazing Spider-Man 2. If introduced in her own spinoff movie, she could have an important role to play in Amazing Spider-Man 3. One assumes that the third film in the series will introduce Mary Jane Watson into the mix, and it's not hard to see a story written around Peter being forced into a tug-of-war between his mundane life as Peter Parker and a relationship with Mary Jane, and his thrilling secret life as Spider-Man and his ongoing flirtations with Black Cat.

Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew)

While we're including Spider-Woman on this list, her legal status is unclear. She has "spider" in her name, which nominally puts her in the Spider-Man family, but the mainstream marvel universe version of the character actually has few ties to Peter Parker besides serving on the same team of Avengers.

And there's the catch. Jessica Drew's origins are tied to the High Evolutionary, and from the word go her history has been tied to Nick Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Avengers. There's a good chance that she falls under the umbrella of characters still controlled by Marvel Studios and Disney, but even if she doesn't, Sony would likely have to remake the character entirely for the film in order to tie her more closely to Spider-Man.

Unless they went with the Ultimate Universe version of the character, that is, who is directly tied to Peter Parker. In the Ultimate Universe, Jessica Drew is actually a female clone of Peter Parker, and something of a slightly estranged sister. While the legal questions still remain, introducing the Ultimate version of Spider-Woman would make a lot more sense for the film universe and could open the door to a film universe version of "The Clone Saga."

Spider-Girl (May Parker)

Spider-Girl is from the MC2 universe, and is the daughter of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. Her real name is May "Mayday" Parker and she has quite the cult following.

We're listing her here based on her popularity and iconic look (she basically wears a modified version of her dad's costume), but the chances of May Parker making it to the screen seem slim. She's the daughter of Peter and Mary Jane, the latter of which hasn't even been introduced to the film universe yet. And yes, we've got a few years until this film comes out, but it's still going to be hard to explain how Peter suddenly has a teenage daughter without diving into the multiverse, which is an area that no superhero film has yet dared to tread (though X-Men: Days of Future Past kind of flirted with it in their time travel shenanigans).

If Spider-Girl does headline her own film, it will most likely be the iconic name and costume with a different character underneath. Existing in the film universe alongside Spider-Man would turn the character into something of an equivalent to Batgirl, which is interesting, but still seems unlikely from a film marketing perspective. We still haven't actually gotten a Batgirl film, after all, and she's a significantly more popular and recognizable character. Fans can hope though.

Araña/Spider-Girl (Anya Corazon)

While she doesn't have quite the cult following that Mayday does, Anya Corazon seems like a Spider-Girl who is logistically easier to bring to the screen.

She has no blood ties to Peter Parker, so there's no awkward forcing of a daughter or sibling into the situation. Instead, she's just a girl who gets caught in the crossfires an ongoing battle between two mystical factions – the Spider Society and the Sisterhood of Wasps – and ends up with superpowers as a result.

This Spider-Girl's most appealing aspect may also be what keeps her out of the movies. She's very different from Spider-Man, mixing with a lot of magic and mysticism that doesn't fit the "mad science" feel of the Amazing Spider-Man films so far. If Sony wants to spice things up a little bit with their spinoffs, then Anya is a great way to do it, but if their looking to keep things consistent as they expand their universe they will likely stay away.

Spider-Woman (Gwen Stacy)

Here's a longshot for you: Gwen Stacy as Spider-Woman. The comic hasn't even been released yet, but Emma Stone did such a great job as Gwen in the first two movies, why wouldn't they want to find a way to keep her around?

We can't go into too much detail about Gwen as Spider-Woman because she's being introduced in an issue of Edge of Spider-Verse that doesn't go on sale until September, but the idea is that, in an alternate universe, Gwen Stacy was the one who got bit by a radioactive spider instead of Peter Parker.

This is another one that would be tricky to bring to the films without diving into the multiverse. They could find a way to make it work in the universe they've already established, but it would take some work. The films have already established that the modified spiders only create superpowers when they bite a Parker, so maybe they clone Gwen using some additional Spider-Man DNA?

Of course, there's also the argument that having Gwen turn into a superhero could lessen the impact of the ending of Amazing Spider-Man 2.

The rumored female-led Amazing Spider-Man spinoff is rumored to be eyeing a 2017 release date.