‘Spider-Man’ Spinoff ‘Silver & Black’ Reportedly Stuck in Development

After helping bring Cloak & Dagger to life for Marvel Television, Gina Prince-Bythewood was riding high and hopeful to transition to Sony’s burgeoning Spider-Man cinematic universe, but those plans might have hit a snag.

Now the director has signed on to helm a different comic book movie, while her Silver & Black project toils in development.

The news comes from the Hollywood Reporter when they revealed Prince-Bythewood has signed on to develop the Image Comics series The Old Guard for a motion picture. It is based on the comic by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernandez, and will be produced by David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Don Granger through Skydance.

In the report, it indicates that Prince-Bythewood’s Black Cat and Silver Sable spinoff from the Spider-Man universe is stuck in development. The Old Guard, in comparison, is on the fast track toward production. Sony Pictures also took Silver & Black off of its release calendar, another sign that the movie hit a snag.

Sony made a deal with Marvel Studios to add Peter Parker to their hugely successful shared universe of superhero movies, making Spider-Man a major part of the Avengers franchise. The character has already appeared in three movies, and is getting a second solo movie in 2019.

But Sony still retains the rights to the Spider-Man universe of characters, including Venom and Black Cat. Tom Hardy will star in Venom, which is due out later this October. Sony planned to follow up that movie with Silver & Black, though it remains to be seen if that project will come to fruition.

There were many rumors of the film going into production sometime this year, but without casting notices or any movement on the script, the film has not gained any momentum.

While speaking with Collider, Prince-Bythewood revealed the creative team was still working on the film’s script, which was holding back production from moving forward.

“With Silver & Black, when you’re doing a film of that magnitude, it’s gotta be right. And if it’s not right, we actually collectively decided to go back to the drawing board and start over,” Prince-Bythewood said. “That’s gonna take time. So obviously, I’d love to be shooting right now, but to be shooting something that I know is not as good as it can be, I’m not the type that wants to shoot something you’re rewriting, as you’re shooting. So, we have to get the script right, and I’m okay to wait. I may be shooting something before that, but it really is just get the script right before we go on that journey.”