Chris Yost, who worked on the upcoming Marvel movie Thor: Ragnarok, is writing the most recent draft. Lisa Joy, co-creator of HBO's Westworld, also worked on the script.

Silver Sable, created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz in 1985, is a mercenary who runs a company that hunts war criminals. The character has been both antagonist and ally to Spider-Man.

Black Cat, an acrobatic cat burglar whose real name is Felicia Hardy, has a long and tangled romantic history with Spider-Man in the comics. The character was cut from scripts for the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy, and a "Felicia Hardy" (played by Felicity Jones) briefly appeared in Amazing Spider-Man 2, though no Black Cat connection was ever made explicit.

Sony is rebooting Spider-Man this summer with Spider-Man: Homecoming and hopes to launch a slate of Spider-Man-related movies. The first project, Venom, is already off and running, having snagged Tom Hardy as star and Ruben Fleischer as director. While Spider-Man is firmly in Marvel's cinematic universe, Sony's offshoots will stand apart.

Prince-Bythewood won acclaim and awards for her feature debut, the 2000 drama Love and Basketball. The writer-director has had her feet mostly planted in the drama world, and in addition to helming Secret Life of Bees also directed the 2014 romantic drama Beyond the Lights, which starred Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Nate Parker.

Prince-Bythewood also co-created the crime drama Shots Fired, which is currently airing on Fox, and is set to direct the pilot for Cloak & Dagger, Freeform's series based on the Marvel Comics teen heroes.

Prince-Bythewood is repped by CAA and Del Shaw.

May 25, 10:30 a.m.: Silver & Black does not have a fall 2018 release date.