A brand new woman-led superhero film is coming to town, and it deserves all the buzz! The newest instalment in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU), Madame Web chronicles an unexpected alliance between several Marvel Comics’ characters who have one essential similarity: they are all Spider-Women. Apart from the titular Madame Web, the film features the second and third Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter and Mattie Franklin respectively. The final member completing the gallant quartet is the young Spider-Girl, Anya Corazon.
Madame Web marks a rare addition to the present superhero realm – an amalgam of the feminine force and kick-ass characters, the film’s trailer strongly hints at an intricately-webbed adventure laced with supernormal powers.
Madame Web: The Background
The film is inspired by the Marvel comic book character, Madame Web, who made her first appearance in The Amazing Spiderman #210 in November 1980. Created by writer Denny O’Neil and artist John Romita Jr., Madame Web is often depicted as a supporting character who is portrayed as an elderly woman with myasthenia gravis (a neuromuscular autoimmune disease) from which she is later cured. Iconically recognised for being attached to a spider-web-like life support chair, Madame Web’s alter ego the clairvoyant human mutant, Cassandra Webb. The upcoming film is rooted in Cassandra’s origins and her entanglement with the spider world.
Madame Web Plot
Meet Cassandra Webb, a clairvoyant paramedic from early 2000s Manhattan (you can see ads for the ‘new’ 3G around!). A power she is shown to be slowly coming into, her ability to see future events (think, Final Destination) throws her into a whirlwind of chaos. In the trailer, we are met with Cassandra’s attempt at rescuing three girls from dangerous assailant dressed eerily similar to Spider-Man. She later identifies the assailant to be Ezekiel Sims, who formerly worked with her mother before she passed away. It is then revealed that the three girls are Julia Carpenter, Mattie Franklin and Anya Corazon respectively, three potential future Spider-Women – Ezekiel is hunting them down with an intention to exterminate. What the reason behind this is still unknown; all Ezekiel says is that “you have no idea what those girls become.” – we might gradually uncover the reason in the film, though.
The trailer hints at what the audience will witness playing out: Cassandra finds herself having to make peace with her tumultuous and mysterious past whilst trying to save the lives of these three girls from the deadly foe.
Madame Web: The Cast
There’s certainly been quite a lot of hype surrounding the cast of Madame Web – fans are humming with excitement. Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades Trilogy, The Lost Daughter) helms the film in the titular role, the gifted psychic paramedic. Sydney Sweeney (Euphoria) plays Julia Carpenter, the blonde-haired Spider-Woman while Celeste O’Connor (Ghostbusters: Afterlife) plays Mattie Franklin, the Spider-Woman with psionic spider legs. As for Spider-Girl, Isabela Merced (Rosaline) personates the human mutate Anya Corazon.
The antagonist and Madame Web’s infamous nemesis, Ezekiel Skims, is played by Tahar Rahim (The Mauritanian). Other cast members include Mike Epps, Emma Roberts, and Zosia Mamet who will be portraying undisclosed roles.
Madame Web: The Release Date
Madame Web is scheduled for a Valentine’s release on February 14, 2024.
Madame Web: Some cool details
For its first ever female-led cinematic opus, Sony hired a highly-skilled group of filmmakers. British director S. J. Clarkson, who has successfully directed a few episodes of Marvel’s TV series such as The Defenders and Jessica Jones has been appointed as Madame Web’s director. American screenwriting duo who previously worked on another SSU piece, Morbius, Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless were endowed with the film’s script. The film’s cinematography is led by master cinematographer Mauro Fiore who worked on the critically-acclaimed Avatar.
Madame Web paves a possible path towards a spectacular ‘spider world’ crossover as the character has a clear connection to the multiverse. Known also as the Dr Strange-esque character of SSU, Madame Web’s film could potentially bring together a bevy of cinematic incarnations of Spider-verse characters. After all, her web does connect them all.
