Yesterday, the entertainment outlet known as The Hashtag Show released a report stating that filmmaker Spike Lee is poised to direct a movie for Sony based on the Marvel character Nightwatch, and now, The Hollywood Reporter has verified the claim. According to THR's sources, Lee is in the early stages of of the project, which would find Marvel's LUKE CAGE showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker penning the script. While Sony has since declined to comment about the NIGHTWATCH project, Marvel fans may soon be introduced to yet another one of the publisher's African-American scientist characters, which should come as welcomed news to fans who enjoy a hero with formidable brain power in addition to brawn.
Now, you'll have to pardon me as I crib a portion of THR's report, as the origin of Dr. Kevin Trench aka Nightwatch is not easy to explain: Nightwatch debuted in Web of Spider-Man #97, the alter-ego of Trench, a man who discovered his own corpse wearing a futuristic suit of armor that he went on to steal and wear while fighting crime and trying to discover the origins of his alternate self and his new costume. (Time-travel was the answer to the former — Trench would later be thrown back in time, dying before he could talk to his past self, although he’d later recover — whereas the costume’s origins are far too complicated to explain here.)
During his short-lived comic book career, Nightwatch was known to have partnered with Spider-Man on more than one occasion, and had even stood side-by-side with heroes the likes of Captain America and Deathlok when battling the forces of evil.
Should the project become more than just a fine idea, NIGHTWATCH would likely join the slate of films planned for Sony's Spiderverse spinoff endeavor. Meanwhile, we already know that a sequel to Marvel's SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING is on the way, while VENOM starring Tom Hardy, director Gina Prince-Bythewood's SILVER & BLACK, and a feature based on Morbius the Living Vampire are also in the works at Sony.
Like a lot of Spidey fans, I'm really hoping that this Spiderverse initiative pans out. I still don't understand how they expect to pull it all off without featuring the Spider-Man character in each of the films. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see. And hey, perhaps the friendly neighborhood wall-crawler will show up, even if it would go down as the most unsurprising twist in cinematic history. The stage is yours, Sony, work it, girl!