Will Female Superheroes Ever Command a Movie Franchise?

by Monica Joshi

With movies like the Hunger Games, Frozen and Brave topping box office charts opening weekend, you'd assume Marvel Comics would be on board to create superhero movies with a female lead. A recently leaked email, however, from Marvel's exec has female fans buzzing about the possibility of Marvel's sexist stance. 

When you think of Marvel's superhero movies the top four come to mind: Spiderman, Hulk, Thor and Captain America. All of those movies have done phenomenally, several even topping box-office charts on opening weekend. In addition to all of the above, Guardians of the Galaxy topped box office opening weekend. 

So with over 40% of the fan base for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy being female, it is a surprise that Marvel still seems wary of producing a Guardians of the Galaxy spin-off with a female lead. Even if there is a high chance of success, possibly even just as much as Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel seems to be unfazed about its decision to not produce the spin-off. Hence, the question still remains, "Will Marvel ever give a leading-lady a chance to shine?" 

The answer, based on recent developments, seems to be a big fat "no". The Marvel exec seemingly claims that this is the case because of the precedence set by previous female-lead superhero movies produced by Marvel such as Elektra. Marvel exec allegedly also pointed out that Catwoman and Supergirl had tanked in the box office leaving not a shred of doubt as to the exec's final decision to ever produce a female superhero movie. 

Marvel's exec was unavailable for comments about the leak and the context of those emails still remain in question. 

The leak could not have come at a worse time when Marvel and Hollywood is under consistent crticism for its blatantly sexist standards. Kristen Stewart, for one, claimed that "Women inevitably have to work a little bit harder to be heard. Hollywood is disgustingly sexist. It’s crazy. It’s so offensive it’s crazy.” 

With that being said, DC Entertainment seems unfazed by the previous response to Catwoman and Supergirl and has instead dived in to introduce female superheroes with a stride. Alongside Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Bros. Consumer Products and Mattel, DC Entertainment will launch a series called "DC Super Hero Girls". 

Diane Nelson, president of DC Entertainment said, “DC Entertainment is home to the most iconic and well-known superheroes including Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Batgirl. DC Super Hero Girls represents the embodiment of our long-term strategy to harness the power of our diverse female characters. I am so pleased that we are able to offer relatable and strong role models in a unique way, just for girls.”

They will be appeasing all of their female fans with this move and rightly so as their comic books are now consumed by a 50% female audience. 

Even Sony seems to be on board as in 2014 it announced that female superhero movie to the Spiderman franchise is in the building stages.

It isn't that there isn't a demand for female superhero movies, it's that quite frankly, the female superhero scripts in the world of Marvel, so far, have been just awful. 

The future, however, remains optimistic that female superhero leads will not be simply "golden girl sidekicks", but instead will be paved a way to their own platform to success. If not Marvel, we can expect Warner Bros., DC Entertainment and Sony to pick up the female-lead slack at least for now in Hollywood.