It wasn’t that long ago that the Marvel Cinematic Universe mostly focused on white men in movies directed by white men. That’s changed. Since Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther, Marvel movies have diversified, casting men and women of color as the superheroes and putting men and women of color in the director’s chair. Only two weeks after it was announced that the Captain Marvel sequel would be helmed by Candyman director Nia DaCosta, making her the franchise’s first directed by a black woman, Deadline reports that Olivia Wilde has signed on to helm an as-yet-specified Marvel movie that will definitely have a female lead.
Mind you, Wilde’s contract is with the Sony wing of Marvel, which controls Spider-Man and Venom, the former of which is on loan to the Disney-led MCU — a deal that last summer infamously almost unraveled completely. While, again, it’s not yet known which character Wilde will nab, it’s believed it will be Spider-Woman, the alias used by multiple women and who first appeared in comics circa 1977.
Last year, Wilde, the actress best known for House, Tron: Legacy, and Drinking Buddies, added feature film director to her CV with the much-loved high school comedy Booksmart. Not only will she follow the path of many indie filmmakers who’ve graduated to big-budget comic book movies, but she’ll also join a growing number of female filmmakers who’ve worked in the genre, among them Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984), Anna Boden (co-director of Captain Marvel), Cathy Yan (Birds of Prey), Cate Shortland (Black Widow), Chloé Zhao (The Eternals), as well as the aforementioned DaCosta. May there be many more.
(Via Deadline)