Sony pulls Spider-Man spinoff Silver & Black from its release calendar

When we reported back in February that the upcoming superhero film Silver & Black had found its screenwriters, we expressed more than a little skepticism that a movie which has only just hired its writers would be able to make a scheduled release date of February 8, 2019, at the time less than a year away. As it turns out, we were right.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony has pulled the film from its calendar, granting everyone involved a reprieve from rushing a potentially massive (and massively expensive) franchise feature into production, saving them the embarrassment of another Suicide Squad-level creative mess in the process. (Not that Sony would mind the box-office returns of that film, mind you.) The assumption is pretty clear: The leads haven’t even been cast yet, meaning there’s almost no way the project could’ve met that deadline.

The film would feature Spider-Man-affiliated characters Silver Sable and Black Cat, the former a mercenary, the latter a cat burglar. Can these two wacky women learn to get along? (Cue the theme song from The Odd Couple.) Actually, unlike other superhero films pulled from their release dates with no indication of returning (looking at you, Inhumans), things don’t seem so bad for Silver & Black. According to director Gina Prince-Bythewood (currently on the promotional tour for Cloak & Dagger, the Marvel series for which she directed the pilot, meaning she’s got experience with “X & X”-titled superhero projects), they’re just nailing down the script while the studio hunts for a better release date. Or maybe the studio is waiting to see how its other Spidey spinoff, Venom, performs in October.