The upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming is reportedly looking for an actress to play a “femme fatale” character.
The report comes from The Hashtag Show, which says the film’s casting director (Sarah Finn) is looking for a European actress who is around the age of 20. Like much about the movie, not much else is known at this point, though it does invite some intriguing possibilities.
When Spidey fans hear “femme fatale,” the first name that probably comes into most of their heads is Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat. A skilled thief and daughter of Walter Hardy, aka “the Cat,” she has been both an enemy and an ally of the web-slinger, and almost always a love interest, whether just as a flirtatious foe or as a legitimate candidate for the hero’s heart. Her name is also meaningful: in the comics, she has the power of probability manipulation, which means that yes, crossing her path may well give you bad luck. Some adaptations forgo this ability, however.
Black Cat is not traditionally European, though. From that clue, a more likely candidate may be Silver Sable. The code name of the mercenary Silver Sablinova, Silver Sable hails from the fictional nation of Symkaria, and her rough tactics sometimes bring her into conflicts with various superheroes. She and Spider-Man have allied several times, however. She is sometimes accompanied by a team called the Wild Pack.
One potential problem with either of these choices is that Sony (which technically owns the movie rights to all Spider-Man characters while renting them out to Marvel Studios) is planning their own film about the pair. Sable and Black, a team-up movie, is set for release on February 8, 2019, mere months ahead of the Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel’s July 5. Would Marvel try to release a second film using such relatively obscure characters?
It should be noted that Marvel Studios is also reportedly looking for a European actress to play Gwen Stacy, another famed love interest of Spider-Man. The character is American in the comics, albeit with a French mother, and is traditionally not a femme fatale, instead being Peter Parker’s equal in goodness and nerdiness. Then again, many of Homecoming’s characters were “in name only,” so for now we will have to see how this plays out.
