Dakota Johnson Cast as Madame Web In Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man-Less Spider-Verse
As Sony Pictures continue to build their fledgling cinematic universe of Spider-Man characters, it looks like they’re close to casting Dakota Johnson as Madame Web, a key role that will likely connect these projects together.
Those familiar with the character might be a little confused by this casting. In the comics, Madame Web is an elderly woman with myasthenia gravis, connected to a life support system that looks like a web. This condition meant that Madame Web never “fought” villains in the traditional sense of the word.
By contrast, Dakota Johnson is 32 years old, so Sony are clearly reimagining the character as a younger hero. She will likely retain her psychic powers that were often used in the comics to unite all the various Spider-Men, but it is unclear whether she will also have the ability to swing from a web like Peter Parker and Miles Morales.
According to Deadline, insiders have claimed that she will be the equivalent of Doctor Strange in the MCU. Though if her role involves one day uniting all the heroes of Spider-Verse, then there might be a bit of Nick Fury in there as well. Sony are considering Madame Web to be their first female superhero, and have been meeting with a number of A-list actresses until Dakota Johnson eventually became the front-runner.
This news does beg the question of what is happening with Sony’s rumored projects with Spider-Woman or Silk, two other female heroes from the comics who share Peter and Miles’ spider-related powers, but none of the psychic ones that differentiates Madame Web from the rest. A Silk TV series was supposedly going to be filmed last year, but there have been no updates on that front in nine months. It was thought that Olivia Wilde’s female-led Spider-Verse film would star Spider-Woman, but perhaps Sony had Madame Web in mind for that project all along.
Certainly, centering a film around a character with psychic powers would be a good way to differentiate this hero from all the others swinging around and shooting webs. So far, Sony Pictures’ Universe of Marvel Characters only consists of Eddie Brock/Venom. Yes, Morbius is on the way, and they could (somehow) bring in Tom Holland or Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man, but with Miles Morales surely arriving in the next few years of the MCU, it makes sense that Sony wouldn’t want to tackle multiple films about characters with similar powers — general audiences don’t really care whether this is a different universe and could show signs of exhaustion after a barrage of Spider-Man-related projects.
This casting would be further evidence of an upward curve for Dakota Johnson. The actress, perhaps best known for starring in the 50 Shades of Gray films, also starred in the Netflix film The Lost Daughter last month, plus her Sundance film Cha Cha Real Smooth was sold to Apple for $15 million recently. She will next be starring in Persuasion, a film adaption of the Jane Austen novel. A starring role in a superhero film would be another string to her bow.
Josh is a huge a fan of Star Wars, superheroes and video games. He spends most of his time wondering who would win in a fight between Boba Fett and Star Lord.
