Angelina Jolie is an international superstar and, more recently, a Marvel superhero. The actress joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2021’s Eternals as the semi-immortal warrior Thena, but as it turns out, this almost wasn’t her first venture into the world of Marvel comics. An upcoming novel by Sean O’Connell, titled With Great Power, gives some of the first in-depth details on the development of Sam Raimi‘s unmade Spider-Man 4, and may have revealed an alternate timeline where Jolie was attached as an original supervillain. It’s well-known that actor John Malkovich was in line to play the film’s main baddie, the Vulture, and that Anne Hathaway would have appeared as a new love interest for Tobey Maguire as the Black Cat. Now, it would seem Jolie was being sought by Sony to portray Adrian Toomes’ vengeful daughter – The Vulturess.
According to an early access report from The Direct, the studio wanted the former Mr. & Mrs. Smith star to take over as the movie’s main villain after Malkovich‘s Vulture met an untimely demise. Jolie‘s unnamed potential character would have played a role throughout the film, as “an accomplished executive representing a venture capital firm that was trying to buy the Daily Bugle.” After her father’s death, presumably in the second act, Jolie would have put on the Vulture suit herself and taken up the mantle. Notably, this information falls in line with a longstanding rumor that Hathaway‘s Felicia Hardy would have been revealed as Toomes’ daughter and set up as the Vulturess instead of Black Cat. It’s unknown if Black Cat and the Vulturess were separate characters in the story, or if Hathaway simply slipped into Jolie‘s role when the part became vacant. Either way, it makes for a fascinating look into a world where Spider-Man 4 actually happened.
Source: The Direct.
