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This archival content was originally written for and published on KPCC.org. Keep in mind that links and images may no longer work — and references may be outdated.

KPCC Archive

Spider-Gwen: If Emma Stone got the chance to lead her own Spider-Man spinoff

Vulture's "Spider-Gwen" fake trailer, starring Emma Stone.

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We all remember that classic theme song: "Spider-Gwen, Spider-Gwen, does much beeeeetter than Spider-Men." Wait... that's not how that goes, is it?

Marvel Comics' "Spider-Gwen" comic was a surprise hit, and now Vulture has put together a trailer for what a feature film version of the idea would look like. The concept: An alternate world where the original Spider-Man's comic book love interest, Gwen Stacy, gets bitten by a radioactive spider, creating a Spider-Woman.

Vulture points out there are currently few female-led superhero films, possibly due to some high-profile failures in the past. DC has a Wonder Woman movie on the way, and Marvel's moving forward with Captain Marvel, but it's taken a long time for comic book movies to even start approaching female leads. Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow remains one of the only Avengers — one of only two of the Avengers from the first film — to not have a solo movie.

The video was assembled using footage of Emma Stone playing Gwen Stacy in the "Amazing Spider-Man" movies, combined with footage from other Stone movies including "Easy A," the original "Spider-Man" and "Birdman." They also had cosplayer Julianne Cancalosi stand in for Spider-Gwen in costume in several scenes, made use of some digital overlays and changed the color of Spider-Man's costume in previous films to put it all together. The trailer's heroic score comes from composer James Dooley, mixing in music from current hit superhero TV show "The Flash."

Oh, and speaking of that "Birdman" footage, they use it to give the trailer its villain — Spider-Man nemesis the Vulture, who happens to look like, well, Michael Keaton's Birdman in this take. The trailer also plays up Gwen's relationship with her police captain father, who was played by Denis Leary in "The Amazing Spider-Man."

The trailer  leaves out any teases toward the most famous bit of Gwen Stacy's history — her death at the hands of the Green Goblin. (Maybe that allusion would show up in a Spider-Gwen sequel?) We're also wondering what Spider-Gwen's relationship with her now spider-powerless but still brainy boyfriend Peter Parker would be like. What would happen if he were the one to get Green Goblined? (as he maaaaay have in the Spider-Gwen comics).

Given that previously relatively obscure characters — like the Guardians of the Galaxy — are now leading box office runs, maybe the idea of a Spider-Gwen film isn't that far-fetched. And with Marvel lending a hand in rebooting the Spider-Man franchise with a new actor, the sky's the limit for where Spider-Man can go next. (Or at least the rooftops of New York City are the limit.)

It's the latest in a series of fake trailers from Vulture in their Vulture Remix series.; watch their take on Idris Elba as James Bond below:

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