Is Sony Planning An Aunt May Spider-Man Spinoff?

If you thought that Sony’s plans for the flailing Amazing Spider-Man franchise were crazy before, I suggest you buckle up because this new development is quite a doozy. We know that Sony is still reeling from the disappointment that was The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and that the studio’s plans for the future of the series are uncertain. The planned Sinister Six and Venom spin-offs are spinning their wheels, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 has been delayed until an unspecified date in 2018, there’s been talk of doing a “soft reboot” of the character through Sinister Six (if that movie even happens), there’s talk of bringing Gwen Stacy back, and the proposed female-led spin-off film, dubbed Glass Ceiling, is a head-scratcher.

The one thing that all of those films have in common, however, is that they at least feature superpowered characters within the Spider-Man universe who could, with the right approach, sustain their own blockbuster film. Sony’s latest idea, however, comes completely out of left field and feels more like an April Fool’s joke than an actual plan. What is that idea, you ask? Well, according to the folks at Latino Review, Sony’s latest Amazing Spider-Man spinoff idea turns the spotlight to none other than Peter’s geriatric guardian, Aunt May Parker.

Don’t worry, I (and, admittedly, most of the internet) am as stunned as you are. Here are the details that Latino Review heard about the project:

Yes, an Aunt May movie. A movie about Aunt May as a youth, before she was shouldered with the responsibility of raising Peter Parker. The target mood is some sort of espionage story in the vein of AMC’s Mad Men, which sounds like a way of saying “classier Agent Carter” without name-dropping Marvel’s upcoming series.

Despite recent rumors that Sony was looking to make some kind of deal with rival company Marvel Studios and allow Spider-Man the chance to share the big screen with the Avengers in one of Marvel’s Phase Three films, the studio is reportedly not giving up the rights to the web slinger “before they make an attempt at a movie based on the completely fabricated past of May Parker.”

I completely understand that, from a business perspective, Sony wants to hold on to Spider-Man at all costs. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 wasn’t very good, but it did make $700 million worldwide. I know that that fell short of the studio’s hopes of joining the billion dollar club, but I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that Sony is so disappointed with those results that we’ve now come to this:

Is making an Aunt May espionage movie really easier than, say, pushing forward with The Amazing Spider-Man 3? Or figuring out a way to make Sinister Six work? Or, hell, introducing some fan-favorite characters like Miles Morales?

Time will tell if this movie actually ends up getting made, or if it’s simply in the spitballing stage over at Sony. Until we find out for sure, let us know what you think about an Agent Aunt May prequel spinoff in the comments below.