Sony Pictures are planning a female 'Spider-Man' spin-off.

The studio have pushed back the next installment in the franchise - which stars Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker and his titular alter ego - to 2018 and before that movie comes out, they want to release a women-driven film, Deadline reports.

According to the website, Lisa Joy has been hired to write the script and Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach will produce, though it is unclear as yet which characters from the superhero stories will feature in the movie.

A source said: ''What other movies we could do was something everyone started talking about when shooting the last movie.

''With [female-driven] 'Salt', 'Wanted' and 'Lucy', there is a huge appetite for this right now.''

Though it is too early for any casting to be taken place, 'Guardians of the Galaxy' actress Karen Gillan recently admitted she would love to play Spider-Girl in a film.

The former 'Doctor Who' actress expressed an interest in portraying a ''lady version'' of Spider-Man and after learning about both May 'Mayday' Parker aka Spider-Girl, and Julia Carpenter, the alter ego of Spider-Woman she made a quick decision over the role she'd prefer.

Asked which superhero she'd like to play, she said: ''Yeah, who is there...? I want to play a version of Spider-Man that's a lady.

Spider-Woman - does she exist? I want to play Spider-Girl!''