Leaked emails from Sony have revealed that Spider-Man is not allowed to be black or gay.

The emails were from Marvel, who own the Spider-Man character, to Sony Pictures who made the most recent blockbuster Spider-Man films – stipulating the terms of the franchise.

Revealed by Gawker, the list of “mandatory character traits” that Peter Parker and alter ago Spider-Man must adhere to include being male, white and heterosexual.

The guidelines state that any other character who is not Peter Parker who takes on the Spider-Man alter ego must also be straight – “unless Marvel has portrayed that alter ego as homosexual”.

Spider-Man is also not allowed to smoke, sell or take drugs, use bad language, or have sex before the age of 16.

The guidelines were sent out in 2011, just after the comics introduced Mike Morales, a black and Latino teenager, as the latest character to take on the Spider-Man role.

In 2013, most recent Spider-Man actor Andrew Garfield said he would love to play a gay or bisexual Spider-Man, but then backtracked on the idea and said it was “just not going to work“.

Spider-Man creator Stan Lee also dismissed the idea of a bisexual Spider-Man saying “He’s becoming bisexual? Really? Who have you been talking to?

“I figure one sex is enough for anybody.”