Jessica Drew in the MCU? Tom Holland Wants Spider-Woman to Join the 'Homecoming' Sequel

We're just a couple of months away from the highly-anticipated release of Spider-Man: Homecoming, and the press tours have already begun. The cast are visiting countries across the world to build the excitement even further, and last week #TomHolland and Co. were in Brazil.

In an interview with the Brazilian website CinePOP, Tom Holland and Laura Harrier discussed what it means to play such iconic characters as Peter Parker and Liz Allan along with their hopes for the future of the series. It was here that Tom Holland offered his opinion of the villains whom he'd like his incarnation of the wall-crawler to face:

"There's so many good villains, I really like Mysterio, I like Kraven. I really like the Clone Saga. I think it could be really cool if Peter, or Spider-Man has to fight people with the same powers as him. Spider-Woman's super cool... I think she's called Spider-Girl who is his clone. They kind of like hit it off and they take their masks off and they're like... [shocked look] What the hell?! They're like the same person, but she's just a girl. I think that's really cool."

#SpiderMan has one of the most eclectic rogues galleries in comic books, and there's a wealth of villains that could be used — many of whom have yet to feature in the movies. In terms of another spider-powered character, there's a rich tapestry of them in the comics these days: Miles Morales, Ben Reilly, Cindy Moon, Kaine Parker, the list goes on.

But the one that Tom Holland alludes to is an interesting choice: Jessica Drew.

The Original Spider-Woman

In the comics, Jessica Drew became gravely ill after her parents' experiments exposed her to huge amounts of uranium. In an attempt to save Jessica's life, her father injects her with a serum infused with irradiated spider's blood.

When she eventually awakens from her coma, she discovers that she had gained abilities similar to Spider-Man, but with a few additions. As well superhuman strength, agility and reflexes, Jessica also gained the ability to cling to walls, a venom-blast, superhuman hearing, an increased metabolism granting her immunity to most toxins and also the ability to secrete powerful pheromones.

Since her inception, Jessica Drew has proven to be a very popular hero who has worked with the vast majority of the Marvel superheroes. She has been an Avenger since 2005's New Avengers, and throughout her time in the group there were calls for her to have her own ongoing seres. The result of the 2009 Secret Invasion storyline explained why this didn't happen as the Jessica in the New Avengers was revealed to have been a Skrull imposter.

Since the real Jessica returned, she has been heavily involved in a number of the big event comics Marvel has released. Obviously, she played a key part in the Spider-Verse event that featured every Spider-Man (and woman!) from across the Marvel multiverse doing battle with the Inheritors, and she was involved in the Civil War II event as she is best friends with Carol Danvers, better known as Captain Marvel.

The original Spider-Woman was invented initially as a one-off character to establish a trademark for #Marvel, but the reception to her comic was so positive, they decided to release an ongoing series. Over the years, she has had a number of encounters with Spider-Man, though the majority of these are friendly.

So why would Jessica fight Peter if they were to meet?

A Spider-Clone?

"Clone" is a bit of a dirty word when it comes to Spider-Man, but there is a possibility that the #MCU's version of Spider-Woman could be a female clone of Peter Parker. The MCU is influenced by more than just the Earth-616 universe in the Marvel comics; this is proved by Samuel L. Jackson playing Nick Fury. In the now defunct Ultimate Marvel Universe (Earth-1610 for anyone keeping score), Jessica Drew was a product of the Clone Saga.

In a nutshell, Doctor Octopus created a number of Spider-Clones to battle Peter Parker, and when Peter meets Jessica it's quite an uncomfortable exchange for the two of them, which culminates in what Jessica calls "the most awkward hug in history" at the story's climax.

Holland's comments do offer another possibility, as he simply mentions battling a villain with the same powers as Spider-Man. This could mean that he would be open to the MCU's Peter Parker meeting with Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider, or perhaps even Kaine. Even Venom would be an option here as the character is Spider-Man's dark mirror (though with the upcoming film, it's highly unlikely).

Whether or not this is able to happen is another question. With the complicated nature of the deal between Marvel and #Sony that allows Spidey to appear in the MCU, we don't really know which characters they do, and don't have the rights to. Because of Jessica Drew's status as an Avenger, maybe we'll have a situation like Quicksilver appearing in both Avengers: Age of Ultron and the X-Men films.

Whatever happens, the Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel will certainly be eagerly awaited by fans; if Tom Holland gets his way, it will certainly be interesting.