Finally, the call for female-driven genre films is being heeded.
DC’s Wonder Woman is now in theaters, and Warner Bros. also has a Joss Whedon Batgirl film in the pipeline as well as a Harley Quinn-toplined Gotham City Sirens movie. Sony has a Spider-Man spinoff centering on Black Cat and Silver Sable, while Fox will likely see an X-23 spinoff featuring the Logan breakout character Laura.
It’s tough to narrow down which female superheroes should be next, but Heat Vision has an idea of where to start.
Black Widow (Marvel)
Fans have been pining for years for a Black Widow stand-alone film within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff has been the powerhouse behind the character since she first appeared in 2010’s Iron Man 2 as Tony Stark’s assistant. But her adventures began way before that when she was recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. after being spared, despite Nick Fury’s orders for Agent Clint Barton (AKA Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye) to kill her as she mentions to Loki in during 2012’s The Avengers. Clearly, Hawkeye was aware of the benefits in keeping her alive, due to her training with the KGB and becoming one of the world’s greatest assassins. This alone would create a strong backstory movie for Black Widow — one where we see fully how she endured her intense training environment, and ultimately became the mighty Avenger she is in the MCU.
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Zatanna (DC Comics)
Zatanna has a backstory that’s certainly worthy of a movie. She’s the daughter of a magician, a member of the Homo Magi race (a race of humans who are magic-wielding) and she is related to Leonardo da Vinci and alchemist Nicholas Flamel as well. Her dramatic story begins with the disappearance of her mother after her birth, and then her father. These losses help drive her journey from stage illusionist to ultimately a member of the Justice League of America. Zatanna’s stand-alone film could be a mystery-thriller similar to the style of Now You See Me as she discovers that her powers are more than just an illusion. And for that shared universe potential, according to comic book history, the heroine also had a close friendship with Bruce Wayne when they were children.
Raven (DC Comics)
Known mostly for being a prominent member of the Teen Titans, Rachel Roth (aka Raven) is a tele-empathetic who can teleport and send out an equally powerful version of her known as her Soul-Self. This entity can fight others physically, manipulate objects and also function away from Raven’s body as eyes and ears — as if she were actually there. A potential movie revolving around Raven’s life would have to be dark and feature a twisted plot. Why? For starters, it should cover her demonic father Trigon’s other children and their goal to destroy her. Part of her struggle would be the pull between good and evil from her complicated family history. This could also bring out another strong female character from the Teen Titans — Starfire.
Spider-Gwen (Marvel)
While there may not be space for Gwen Stacy as a hero in the current MCU, Spider-Woman gained popularity after her initial appearance in the 2014 comic Edge of Spider-Verse No. 2. It was fans who decided to affectionately dub her as Spider-Gwen. A major focus point would be on the fact that she is the Earth-65 version Peter Parker’s girlfriend, but in the mainstream Marvel universe, she has been dead for quite some time. Perhaps her story could take place in an alternate universe from the MCU (which would help explain why Tom Holland’s Spider-Man might not pop up), though maybe Sony and Marvel could do a crossover similar to what happens with The CW’s Supergirl, which sometimes meets up with shows like The Flash that take place in a different universe.
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