So Sony have announced they are making a female superhero movie. At last!
I’m surprised that it’s Sony making it official as I thought it would most likely be Marvel finally green lighting a Black Widow movie, but I’m pleased nonetheless.
And what’s great is that the Spidey universe has a ton of great female superheroes (Spider-Woman, Black Cat, Firestar).
Amazing stories
There are so many fantastic women in the comic book universe with great stories to be told. It’s a crying shame film studios have concentrated on bringing male led comic book stories to screen instead.
I am not going to harp on about the need to have more strong female role models as, while it would be nice, I don’t think it should be the sole reason for making these movies.
Look at Batman, a guy who is literally driven by revenge and Iron Man, who I think we can agree, is for the most part an arrogant piece of work and not that easy to get on with.
Both of these are great heroes and while they may not be as wholesome as Captain America, they are supremely popular and watchable. So being a superhero isn’t all about being a good role model.
And don’t forget that we’ve seen some awesome female heroes on screen before anyway, as they feature heavily in the X-Men films and are on display in other comic book movies like The Fantastic Four and The Avengers too.
All the excuses
One of the main excuses for the lack of female led superhero movies has been that they’ve just been too busy with all the sequels and reboots.
There is also the worry that it is hard to market superheroes that are not well known among general audiences that don’t read comics. I would have to disagree with that mainly for the reason that Guardians of the Galaxy is kicking major butt at the box office and there is soon to be an Ant Man movie…
Not just for girls
All excuses aside, I think the real reason behind it, is that studio bigwigs have a lack of guts and trust that there is a market for a female driven superhero franchise.
It is not to do with the fans, the current success of Scarlett Johansson’s newest action flick Lucy can attest to that, as can the seemingly never ending Resident Evil franchise films starring Milla Jovovich.
Films like this are not just watched by women. Everyone likes to see a strong character fighting the good fight. If the film is decently written, has a good director attached, producers who know what they are doing and a great cast, the movie stands to have a high chance of success.
No more half-assed attempts of female driven films though please – I’m looking at you Catwoman and Supergirl. We need a serious contender that shows that female superheroes can kick just as much butt as the men.
Marvel and Warner Brothers have a built in audience to explore female superhero potential with Black Widow and Wonder Woman, plus both sides have a fantastic catalogue of characters they could develop into major franchises.
Heroines like Batwoman, Zatanna and pretty much any of the female X-Men and Hellcat are all great characters that would work well on film and that is just the tip of the iceberg.
We need a female superhero film because the mostly male led universe of superheroes that we are getting, while great, is not enough.
If done well, we will have even more awesome content to delve into, without the temptation to keep rebooting the same characters over and over, which let’s face it is something studios are pretty into doing right now.
