With the Venom spinoff back in development, Sony is looking to further expand on their Spider-Man cinematic universe. Venom is currently scheduled for an October 2018 release, with Scott Rosenberg (Jumanji) and Jeff Pinkner (The Dark Tower) writing the script. Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach will act as producers.

Now Sony will expand on this new universe they are creating and have found a new writer to pen a script centered on female characters Silver Sable and the Black Cat. According to new reports, Thor: Ragnarok scribe Christopher Yost has been tapped to write the script. More on the story below.

THR says Yost will be working on a script previously written by HBO’s Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy. Also, the studio is hoping to land a director very soon and has set a Fall start date.

This isn’t exactly the first time that we’ve seen talk of a Spider-Man Cinematic Universe or of a female-led film. While Sony tried to set something up with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the film’s middling success forced the studio to scrap everything and make a deal to share the webslinger with Marvel Studios. Among the planned spinoffs that Sony was working on were a Sinister Six film, the aforementioned Venom spinoff, and an Aunt May spinoff – though that rumor was squashed almost immediately.

Since Tim Rothman stepped in as the new CEO, things have changed for both the studio and the Spider-Man film franchise. Just last year, he talked about breathing new life into the planned Spider-Man shared universe. They would still have the authority to greenlight films, but Marvel Studios would provide a creative consultation to their projects. Much like how Kevin Feige’s input was included in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

But it should be interesting to see how the studio will approach this universe given that they have to share Spider-Man now with Marvel. It’s not exactly clear what will happen to some of Spidey’s classic villains and supporting characters. THR adds that these spinoffs are not a part of the MCU, but “rather projects spun from the overall franchise and based on Marvel’s Spider-Man universe.” If that makes sense.

For those that don’t know, Black Cat aka Felicia Hardy is the daughter of a renowned cat burglar, has crossed paths with Spider-Man plenty of times, and has often paired up with him to deal with whatever crisis was in front of them. Silver Sable is the lesser known of the two, but has enough assassinating skills that she’s on par with Black Widow.

Felicity Jones played Felicia Hardy in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but never actually donned the Black Cat suit. Instead she played the assistant of Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan).

Yost is best known for his work on Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Raganrok. No release date has been set for the untitled Black Cat and Silver Sable spinoff.

[Source: THR]