Her web connects them all — or most of them. Madame Web, originally announced as part of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, weaves the origin story of paramedic turned psychic Cassandra “Cassie” Webb (Dakota Johnson) and the three women fated for superhero destinies: future Spider-Women Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor), and Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced). Director SJ Clarkson (Marvel’s Jessica Jones) has described the 2003-set Madame Web as taking place in a “standalone world” unattached from the Spider-Man movies, including the multiversal Web of Life and Destiny seen in the animated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
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“We made a decision early on that the advantage in this story was not to attach it to all these other stories,” producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura told ComicBook. “We tip the hat. But really, we wanted to concentrate on a character journey, and I think some of the superhero fatigue that people talk about is because those movies are often not about the central character.”
“And so we felt it was a stronger choice for us to say, ‘This is Madame Web’s story,’” Di Bonaventura continued. “She comes out of the Spider-Man comic books, but it’s not part of this other giant thing. It is its own standalone, which gave the freedom to really tell the character story.”
Madame Web — an elderly clairvoyant with psychic and prescience powers — debuted in 1980’s Amazing Spider-Man #210, with a cover remarking that Spider-Man isn’t “the only web-head in town.” Other spider-people would swing into the pages of Amazing Spider-Man and other Spider-related books, including the film’s villain: Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim), who in the comics was a spider totem and spider-powered mentor to Peter Parker when he learned the mystical origins of his superpowers.
Per the synopsis: “Madame Web tells the standalone origin story of one of Marvelpublishing’s most enigmatic heroines. The suspense-driven thriller starsDakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, a paramedic in Manhattan who developsthe power to see the future… and realizes she can use that insight tochange it. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she forges arelationship with three young women bound for powerful destinies…ifthey can all survive a deadly present.”
Madame Web is in theaters February 14.
