Spider-Man has one of the most iconic rogues galleries in comics, and several of the character’s memorable antagonists have already been featured in the live-action films. As Marvel Studios ramps things up for next summer’s Spider-Man 4, fans believe they know who Peter Parker will be facing off against this time around. A rumor originating from scooper @MyTimeToShineH claims Spider-Man 4 has a female villain, with a casting announcement planned in the near future. That tidbit indicates the character is different from Sadie Sink’s mysterious role. Since the villain is said to be a woman, fans believe an iconic Spider-Man character is about to make the jump to the big screen.
Videos by ComicBook.com
In reactions to the rumor, Twitter users are speculating Black Cat will be in Spider-Man 4. It is important to remember that this is just fans theorizing about potential storylines in the film, so take all this with a grain of salt.
Introduced in 1979, Black Cat has gone on to become one of the most popular characters in the Spider-Man mythos. Over the decades, she’s appeared in multiple TV shows and video games (including Insomniac’s recent Spider-Man series for PlayStation). The closest Black Cat came to being featured on film was The Amazing Spider-Man 2, when Felicity Jones was cast as Felicia. Any plans to further develop that character fell apart when the series was discontinued in favor of the MCU reboot starring Tom Holland.
[RELATED – Spider-Man 4 Theory Predicts Major Crossover Between MCU & Spider-Verse Animated Films]
For a while, Sony was developing the movie Silver & Black, which would have teamed Black Cat up with Silver Sable. That project was pulled from the studio’s slate back in 2018 and never came to fruition. Following the box office disappointment of Kraven the Hunter, Sony put its Spider-Man spinoff series on ice.
Black Cat being in Spider-Man 4 would be a plausible development. There’s been considerable interest in seeing her adapted for a live-action film, and there’s a lot of storytelling potential with the character. At various points, Black Cat and Spider-Man have been everything from enemies to lovers, meaning there’s fertile ground here for a compelling arc (perhaps one spread over multiple films). It remains to be seen how Spider-Man 4 deals with the fallout of No Way Home‘s emotional ending; due to Doctor Strange’s spell, MJ and Ned no longer have any memory of Peter. Marvel could use that as a gateway to surround Holland with a new supporting cast, with Black Cat filling the role of love interest. Since the character hasn’t truly appeared in a live-action film yet, this would be a fresh, exciting direction for the movies to take.
Many fans are also hoping Spider-Man 4 deviates from Marvel’s multiversal craziness to tell a smaller, street-level story about Peter being a friendly neighborhood hero. Bringing Black Cat into the fold would be a way to accomplish that, pitting Spider-Man against a burglar. However, it’s difficult to predict how the Spider-Man 4 story will unfold. Since it arrives just a couple short months after Avengers: Doomsday, it could weave a larger-scale narrative that helps set the stage for Secret Wars. Spider-Man 4 will begin shooting in the summer, so hopefully there’s some clarity on the cast by then.
