After a few days of speculation, Dakota Johnson could have slyly confirmed her rumored casting as Madame Web in the new Spider-Man spinoff. The new addition to the Spider-Man universe was originally announced back in 2019, but since then it has been pretty much radio silence on any further information until last month. It was suggested that Johnson was in talks to appear as Madame Web, which will become part of Sony’s expanding Universe of Spider-Man Characters and will obviously benefit in attention from the huge Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The character of Madame Web, also known as Cassandra Webb, first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #210 in the 1980s and was an ally of the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. While Peter Parkers retained his mostly human characteristics, Madame Web is a mutant with numerous supernatural abilities including astral projection, telepathy and clairvoyance, who was born blind and is paralyzed, relying on her spider-web-shaped life support machine.
Although Johnson has not directly commented on the rumors, she made a post on her Instagram stories shortly after the story of her reported talks with Sony came to light, sharing a simple picture of a spider web. The post was obviously strategically made to link into the Spider-Man spinoff news, and this kind of cryptic post is obviously going to lead to speculation about its meaning. In many ways it is reminiscent of the first post by Vincent D’Onofrio around the time of Hawkeye’s premiere, and we all know where that led.
Madame Web Is Will Introduce Another Lesser-Known Marvel Character To The Big Screen
Marvel
While there are plenty of Spider-Man comic book fans who will instantly be able to tell you everything about Cassandra Webb, like many new arrivals in Sony and Marvel Studios’ respective universes she will be a mostly unknown character to many filmgoers. The film is currently being written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, who have been most recently responsible for the Morbius script, and Jessica Jones director S.J. Clarkson is set for helming duties. Outside those details though, there are no other whispers of casting information or any other members of the production team.
One thing of note is that Johnson many seem quite young to be playing the character, as Madame Web has most often been depicted as an older woman. If the casting is a done deal, then there could be a number of reasons behind the choice to go with a younger version of Cassandra Webb. The most obvious idea would be that the on-screen iteration would form an origin story for the character, but outside that, there is also the possibility that the movie will simply do what the MCU did with Aunt May. Previous versions of May, including in Sony’s previous Spider-Man movies, have all been much older than Marisa Tomei’s character in the Tom Holland trilogy, and this could just be another character age alteration being made.
In all, there is still a lot to be ironed out in the movie, and all will come to light in time, but for now, it seems that Johnson is certainly making sure that the rumor mill continues to roll on.
