Sony's Spider-Man "spin-off" film starring Silver Sable and Black Cat has landed a title, release date and director.
Silver and Black is scheduled to arrive in theaters in October 2018, with The Secret Lives of Bees writer and director Gina Prince-Bythewood (who also directed the pilot for Marvel and Freeform's Cloak & Dagger TV series) at the helm. Thor: Ragnarok scribe Chris Yost is currently writing the script based on an earlier version by Lisa Joy. Matt Tolmach and Amy Pascal remain on board as the film's producers. As of now, none of the movie's actors have been announced.
The news comes hot on the heels of Sony's other Spidey spin-off announcement that Tom Hardy is slated to star in the studios' in-development Venom film. Interestingly, Venom has an announced release date of Oct. 5 2018, which, if Silver and Black's reported release date is accurate, would place two Spider-Man-based films in theaters at the same time.
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The news arrives ahead of the July release of Spider-Man: Homecoming, a co-production with Marvel Studios that reboots the Sony franchise, with Tom Holland reprising his role as Peter Parker from Captain America: Civil War. It's expected that, much like Venom, Silver and Black will not be connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is, however, one of the first films in Sony's long-planned expansion of the Spider-Man franchise, which may or may not include Sinister Six, a villain-centric movie that was originally announced in 2013 as part of the studio's plans to expand upon the Andrew Garfield-led Spider-Man films.
Debuting in Marv Wolfman and Keith Pollard’s “Amazing Spider-Man” #194 in 1979, Black Cat has long been a staple of Spider-Man’s corner of the Marvel Universe. Despite her being a thief, Felicia has maintained a rather flirty relationship with Spider-Man, and the two even dated off-and-on. More recently, however, she has turned against him; due to his “betrayal” in “Superior Spider-Man,” Felicia took a hard line against Spidey and formed her own crime ring.
Silver Sable isn’t quite as well known as Black Cat, but has existed in Spider-Man’s world for almost as long. She arrived in Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz’s “Amazing Spider-Man” #265 in 1985 and has worked with Spidey on multiple occasions. Since she is a mercenary, though, she has faced off against Peter Parker just as much as she’s helped him. In addition to being an accomplished martial artist, Sable runs a company that targets war criminals.