Columbia Pictures announced today that Madame Web will officially debut on Sony’s Universe of Spider-Man Characters in July 2023. The film stars Dakota Johnson as the titular hero and will be an origin story for the first female lead in Sony’s corner of the Marvel universe.
Madame Web is a supporting character to Peter Parker in the comic books. The elderly woman suffers from a debilitating illness that forces her to constantly be attached to machines resembling a spiderweb, hence her moniker. The blind woman can also sense what the future holds and uses her clairvoyant power to prevent Spider-Man from committing horrible mistakes.
Madame Web is the perfect supporting character for any aspiring superhero, one that can look behind the curtains of the future and reveal the outcome of a conflict before it even happens. However, we are all curious to see how Sony will turn her into a protagonist despite her lack of combat abilities. Besides that, it seems unlikely that Johnson would be cast to play an older woman who never leaves her room, which means the upcoming film adaptation should take a lot of liberties with the character. Then again, both Morbius and the two Venom films felt a little too formulaic, so having a lead that may not be directly involved in combat could result in a fresh take on superhero cinema.
Besides Johnson, the only other cast member confirmed for Madame Web is Euphoria’s Sydney Sweeney, who has joined the project in an undisclosed role. The film will be directed by S.J. Clarkson (Jessica Jones, The Defenders) from a script by Morbius’ writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless.
Before Madame Web makes her cinematic debut, the next chapter in Sony’s universe of Marvel characters will be Kraven the Hunter. Set to premiere on January 13, 2023, the film will give yet another Spider-Man villain its own origin story, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the titular poacher. Kraven the Hunter will also serve as a trampoline for several other classic Marvel characters, with Ariana DeBose playing the voodoo priestess Calypso, The White Lotus star Fred Hechinger showing up as the master of disguises Chameleon, and Christopher Abbott donning the mantle of the assassin The Foreigner.
Madame Web his theaters on July 7, 2023, two weeks after Warner’s Flash premieres and three weeks before Disney releases Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. It also arrives just a little over a month after the new release date for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which was recently delayed. It’s a tight window to ensure the film’s success, especially considering that Sony’s universe of Marvel characters so far didn’t receive the same fan support as DC or the Marvel Cinematic Universe.