‘Madame Web’: Dakota Johnson Says She’s Up For Sequels But Still Hasn’t Seen The Film

As many predicted, “Madame Web” is a terrible movie, but let’s not say the same for Dakota Johnson‘s recent press tour for Sony‘s “Spider-Verse” spinoff. The actress has been publicity gold the past few weeks discussing the film. She’s been candid about the movie script’s “drastic changes” before production started, the “absolutely psychotic” experience of shooting scenes in front of so much blue screen, and the generally dismal outlook she has about creativity in Hollywood thanks to the rise of streamers. In short, “Madame Web” sucks, as many predicted it would, but Johnson’s deadpan, indirectly apologetic comments about the film almost make up for it. Almost.

READ MORE: ‘Madame Web’: Dakota Johnson Can’t Save This Forgettable ‘Spider’ Money Grab

But Johnson isn’t done taking poised potshots at her latest feature, revealing that, no, she hasn’t even watched “Madame Web” yet. “I don’t know when I’ll see it. Someday,” she told Magic Radio and echoed the same in an MTV interview (which you can watch below). But if “Madame Web” does well at the box office (spoiler alert: it won’t), the actress would be up for a sequel or two. “If they want me to come back, then I definitely will,” Johnson told Total Film/Games Radar. “I have no idea what’s in store.”

Nor does “Madame Web” director S.J. Clarkson, apparently. While Clarkson and Johnson had adulatory things to say about each other to AP in a recent interview, the director spoke about how she wanted to do a superhero movie about a superpower that’s hard to visually demonstrate onscreen: clairvoyance. “I saw the challenge of clairvoyance and the fact that it didn’t necessarily scream action as its biggest virtue,” Clarkson told AP. “Because then we could explore the fact that you don’t need superhuman strength to be a superhero.” The result there? “Many of those scenes that [Dakota’s] in, nothing’s happening. It’s just her reacting and me saying, this is what’s going to happen in the future when we film it, right? It really was a bit like clairvoyance for her in that she didn’t actually get to see it.”

The pun here is that for a movie about clairvoyance, the creators of “Madame Web” clearly didn’t have any when it came to how critics and audiences would respond to the film. Clarkson said she looked at Nicolas Roeg’s “Don’t Look Now,” Christopher Nolan’s “Memento” and “Inception,” and the Wachowskis’ “The Matrix” for inspiration while in pre-production. Those are all great films, but all four also have a kinetic, evocative element to their mind games, whether that’s visually or in editing technique. “Madame Web” doesn’t have any of that, unfortunately. Who could have seen that coming?

Jokes aside, “Madame Web” enters its first box-office weekend today, recouping only $6.1 million of its $80 million budget since hitting theaters on Valentine’s Day. What does that mean for “Kraven The Hunter” and “Venom 3“? Well, it foretells further doom for Sony’s “Spider-Verse” spinoffs, but does anyone really need a clairvoyant to predict that?