I’m going to be honest: It’s been a long while since I’ve been excited about anything in the superhero space. However, after the trailer for Madame Web dropped, that all changed. Seeing a team of badass women take on evil is music to my ears and hopefully yours. Dakota Johnson plays the protagonist, followed by a team of spider-women in next year’s Madame Web.
Let’s take a look at the cast and find out more about this next Sony Spider-Man Universe installment.
Is the trailer too good to be true?
In the opening scenes of the trailer, we see Dakota Johnson thrown into action that doesn’t go well for her, but it appears she travels back in time to redo it. Dakota Johnson has been cast as Madame Web (Cassandra Webb), and it looks like she fits into the superhero space. Sydney Sweeney also joins Johnson as Julia Carpenter, better known as Spider-Woman, but clearly before she even knows this herself. Carpenter took over for Spider-Woman Jessica Drew at one point in the comics.
Sony’s official synopsis of Madame Web is as follows:
“In a switch from the typical genre, Madame Web tells the standalone origin story of one of Marvel publishing’s most enigmatic heroines. The suspense-driven thriller stars Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, a paramedic in Manhattan who may have clairvoyant abilities. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she forges a relationship with three young women destined for powerful futures…if they can all survive a deadly present.”
New characters swinging into action
I’m a sucker for Spider-Man, and seeing a live-action Spider-Woman is enough to make me excited about this new film. But who else will be joining Johnson and Sweeney? Well, we get to see Madame Web take on arch-nemesis Ezekiel (Tahar Rahim), who can see into the future, too.
As Collider reports, we will see “Isabella Merced (Dora and the Lost City of Gold), Emma Roberts (American Horror Story), and Adam Scott (Severance), who have all been spotted in the set photos, along with Tahar Rahim (The Mauritanian), Mike Epps (The Hangover), Zosia Mamet (The Flight Attendant), and Celeste O’Connor (Ghostbusters: Afterlife).”
We don’t know too much about Sony’s adaptation of Madame Web but this is what we know from the comics about the characters featured. After making her comic book debut in 1980, Madame Web is a welcome addition to Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. However, in the comics, the hero is blind, lives with a neuromuscular autoimmune disorder that necessitates her connection to a spiderweb-like life support system and appears as an old woman who is an ally to Spider-Man, as she’s telepathic and helps Spider-Man at times. It doesn’t appear that Johnson’s character is old or blind, but perhaps that will play out in due course.
Celeste O’Connor has been cast as Mattie Franklin who, in Marvel comics, was given the gift of flight and superhuman strength. Isabela Merced plays Anya Corazon (Spider-Girl) and has superhuman strength, agility, and a protective exoskeleton. Sydney Sweeney’s Julia Carpenter has powers that are the closest to Spider-Man’s. I’m excited to see how the film adapts what we know from the comics and how the stories of the characters will unfold.
Ezekiel appears to be the only character we can see who is utterly different from the comics. In the trailer, Ezekiel appears as a “dark version” of Spider-Man, on the hunt for other heroes. However, in the comics, he is a wealthy businessman who uses his spider powers to become rich and turns Peter Parker’s world upside down with supernatural revelations about the roots of their powers. They wind up working together as well as clashing, culminating in Ezekiel seeing the error of his ways and sacrificing himself for Peter. It’s unclear how his story will play out in Madame Web, but I hope they incorporate at least some of the original comics into this new addition to the SSU.
I can only hope Sony’s adaptation of Madame Web is as exciting as the trailer suggests, and I can’t wait to see what these badass superwomen have in store for us in 2024, so stay tuned …
(featured image: Sony Pictures Releasing)
