Sony is slowly building its Spider-Man cinematic universe with a host of movies based on Spidey villains and C-grade superheroes from Spider-Man lore. The latest to join the much-delayed universe is Jackpot. Sony has tapped one of the comic’s writers, Marc Guggenheim, to draft a script for the female hero.
Jackpot has had two iterations in the comics, and it isn’t clear which one will be featured in the film. Her first incarnation is Sara Ehret, a pregnant scientist who gains superhuman strength after an experiment goes awry. Her baby is born healthy and she dons some spandex to become a hero. She eventually retires and hands off the job to Alana Jobson, who later dies, prompting Ehret to resume her role as the hero. Ehret is the more likely choice for the film; while her powers aren’t that original, the focus on being a hero and a mother at the same could give the film a unique slant.
Guggenheim is quickly becoming a hot comic book movie commodity. He has a long list of comic book credits including Jackpot, Aquaman, and Amazing Spider-Man, but he is getting pulled over into comic films by Sony, which has tasked him with not only this film but adapting Gantz. He’s had previous television writing credits on a host of procedural shows like Law & Order and also written for Arrow.
Sony’s attempt at a cinematic universe using the Spider-Man IP has slowed down immensely thanks to the coronavirus. Originally, Morbius was supposed to land this summer building off the success of Venom. That is being followed by Venom 2 and a slew of other films surrounding but not yet involving Spider-Man. All of them have been pushed back, however, giving the nascent universe only one movie so far and little direction despite Sony developing films like Jackpot.
