In somewhat surprising casting news, Dakota Johnson is reportedly in talks to play Madame Web for Sony, who are looking to expand their roster of Marvel characters. This will be the first woman superhero from Sony, who exist adjacent to the MCU. Jessica Jones director SJ Clarkson will be helming the project.
According to Deadline; “In the comics, Madame Web is depicted as an elderly woman with myasthenia gravis and thus was connected to a life support system that looked like a spider web. Due to her age and medical condition, Madame Web never actively fought any villains. Insiders say due to her psychic sensory powers, she is essentially Sony’s version of Doctor Strange.”
Due to Johnson’s casting, it looks as though Sony might be going the Julia Carpenter route with Madame Web. When the original Madame Web was dying, she passed her mutation – including her psychic abilities, as well as her blindness – to Carpenter. Carpenter is younger and can move around and fight. Web was also cloned at one point.
Sony have reportedly met with “a number of A-listers,” with Johnson now considered the front-runner. Johnson has recently been receiving acclaim for her roles in Netflix’s The Lost Daughter and Cha Cha Real Smooth, which made its debut at Sundance.
Sony had a very successful 2021, with Venom: Let There Be Carnage doing well, and then Spider-Man: No Way Home breaking box office records.
We’re still pretty confused about how much Sony overlaps with the MCU if we’re honest, but Venom and potentially the X-Men are being (at least partially) subsumed into the MCU, it would appear. How much Madame Web will cross over with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and other MCU characters remains to be seen.
While we wait for more news on Madame Web, check out our guide to Marvel Phase 4.