First announced in March of this year, Sony Pictures is developing a Spider-Man spinoff film starring Silver Sable and Black Cat. We learned a few months ago that it would be directed by Gina Prince Bythewood, and now we have a release date — February 8, 2019.

It is one of two Spider-Man spinoffs from Sony, the first being Venom, which is set for 2018 release.

It is important to note these Spider-Man spinoffs are not part of Sony’s partnership with Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, so this will be of no relation to the recent Spider-Man: Homecoming from Marvel, or any other current Marvel television or film properties.

Prince-Bythewood most recently directed the pilot for Marvel’s upcoming Cloak & Dagger series for Freeform, so this isn’t her first attempt at a superhero-themed project. She also recently directed the Fox event series, Shots Fired.

Sony is eyeing a fall start date for production with Matt Tolmach and Amy Pascal producing. Columbia Pictures’ Palak Patel and Eric Fineman are overseeing the project for the studio.

Debuting in “Amazing Spider-Man” #194 in 1979, Black Cat is a staple of Spider-Man’s Marvel Universe. Despite her being a thief, she’s maintained a flirty relationship with Spider-Man, and the two even dated periodically. Although she would eventually turn against him and formed her own crime ring.

Silver Sable has also existed in Spider-Man’s universe for a long time. She first appeared in “Amazing Spider-Man” #265 in 1985 and has worked with the web-slinger on multiple occasions. Since she is a mercenary who has faced off against Spidey but has also helped him. In addition to being an accomplished martial artist, Sable runs a company that targets war criminals.

As we’ve stated in earlier posts, this is huge for Prince-Bythewood! It’s rare for a woman filmmaker to be handed the helm of a superhero-themed feature film at a major studio; and for a woman filmmaker who happens to be black, it just doesn’t happen.

Silver and Black