Imagine a movie about Aunt May, who helped raise Peter Parker/Spider-Man. While that sounds like a completely far-fetched idea, Sony is reportedly so desperate to find a new direction for the Spider-Man franchise that they’re actually considering it.
This rumor comes from Latino Review, which often gets comic book movie scoops correct. However, this is one some should hope doesn’t come true. A source told the site that Sony is developing a project about May Parker before her nephew was bit by a radioactive spider.
According to the site, the film would be something like an espionage thriller, turning May into a spy during the 1960s. This would turn her into an Agent Carter-style character, like the one Marvel introduced in Captain America: The First Avenger. Sony would be completely coming up with this origin story themselves, since there’s nothing like it in the comics.
There was a 2003 Marvel series called Trouble by Mark Millar that tried to turn May into Peter Parker’s real mother, but since the story didn’t sell well, that origin never caught on.
Before The Amazing Spider-Man 2 became a major disappointment, Sony had high hopes for ASM turning into its own Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since ASM 2 came out though, ASM 3 has been pushed back to 2018 and David Goddard’s Sinister Six movie was scheduled to November 2016.
There’s also still no confirmed word on what’s going on with the Venom movie and, although there were rumors of a female superhero movie in this universe over the summer, nothing has been confirmed there either.