OK, no one really knows what’s up with Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff movie, “Madame Web,” at least whether it’s good or not. Still, journalist Drew McWeeny’s tweet this weekend, “I have never seen a more defeated press tour than MADAME WEB. Everyone looks like they’re pre-emptively apologizing,” is at least super amusing and perhaps what many of us have been thinking.
It’s almost certainly a reference to this half-hearted quote; the movie’s start, Dakota Johnson, recently gave Entertainment Weekly about the film.
READ MORE: ‘Madame Web’ Trailer: Dakota Johnson Leads Sony’s Latest Spidey Spinoff Coming Feb 2024
“I’ve never really done a movie where you are on a blue screen, and there’s fake explosions going off, and someone’s going, ‘Explosion!’ and you act like there’s an explosion,” Johnson said. “That, to me, was absolutely psychotic. I was like, ‘I don’t know if this is going to be good at all! I hope that I did an OK job!”
LOL, even Johnson’s related quotes about her being unsure about the role at first don’t help.
“I got sent this script, and I was like, ‘I don’t know about me being a superhero,’” Johnson said of her first reaction to the screenplay. “I was sort of mystified by her powers. I felt like, ‘Oh, I really would love to see that superhero. I would love to see a young woman whose superpower is her mind.’”
That said, “Madame Web” is directed by a veteran, S. J. Clarkson, known for “Succession” and Marvel Netflix shows like “The Defenders” and “Jessica Jones.” “I trusted her so much,” Johnson told EW. “I trusted her. She works so hard, and she has not taken her eyes off this movie since we started.”
Set in 2003, “Madame Web” follows Cassie (Dakota Johnson) as she grapples with her newfound powers and faces off against a mysterious enemy named Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim). Ezekiel is hunting three young women: Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor), and Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced).
Right now, it’s sort of unclear what Cassie’s powers are other than seeing into the future, but she apparently suits up in the movie, too, so apparently, she has Spider-Man/Woman-like abilities, too.
“Madame Web” was once rumored to be about these women trying to save a young Peter Parker way before he becomes Spider-Man, but now, the connections to the current Spider-Verse have been walked back, the movie seemingly a stand-alone picture.
“There may be some hesitation to emphasize the interconnectedness of these movies,” says Jeff Gomez, an executive transmedia producer at Starlight Runner who worked with Sony on “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” said in a recent Variety article about this very subject. “They’ve talked about it before, and it didn’t work out.”
What seems to be the case is that Sony would rather downplay their ties to previously established cinematic universes rather than play them up.
“Madame Web, in the comics, tied together the multiverse for Spider-Man characters,” Gomez added. “The purpose of doing that movie — I would think — would be to essentially set up a superhighway between universes.”
Sony has three “Spider-Man” movies on the calendar this year, all being touted more as stand-alone than interconnected “Spider-Man” films. There’s “Madame Web” in February, “Kraven the Hunter” follows in August (which is R-rated), and then “Venom 3” in November, which may be the last time Tom Hardy plays the character and thus the last chance for any major crossover if the rumors are correct.
What Sony doesn’t want a repeat of is “Morbius,” the 2022 “Spider-Man” spinoff starring Jared Leto that was seen as a big, expensive dud. Whether “Madame Web” becomes that or not, remains to be seen, but there’s probably some savvy strategizing in reminding your cast to talk positively about your film in the home stretch of release!
