Madame Web almost had a special limited edition popcorn bucket that featured big Marvel Cinematic Universe references and nods to other Spider-Man characters. Spider-Man is one of the most beloved superheroes out there, but unfortunately, he is also an extremely complicated character to make movies and TV shows around. You see, Marvel sold the film rights to Spider-Man a few decades to avoid bankruptcy and obviously, that created some problems once Marvel wanted to create the MCU. Spider-Man was off limits for almost a full decade, despite the fact new Spider-Man movies were being made on a frequent basis. However, after the implosion of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Marvel and Sony struck a deal to bring the character to the MCU.
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Sony retained the film rights, but would essentially lend the character to Marvel for crossover movies while working together on solo films set in the MCU. It was a great deal and one that pleased fans. However, Sony has tried to find other ways to keep making its own Spider-Man-adjacent movies with Morbius, Venom, and Madame Web. The latter was a total bomb that was slammed by fans and critics on top of failing to impress at the box office. It was hardly surprise given Madame Web just isn’t a character you make a movie around unless someone pitches a super great idea, but it felt like it was born out of a meeting between Sony execs trying to figure out characters they could use in a movie without thinking of what the story would be.
It has long been rumored that Madame Web was more intricately connected to Spider-Man than some of the other villain movies. Sony has always been very strange about using Spider-Man in movies that should at least probably name drop him or feature some kind of reference to him. A piece of graffiti of Spider-Man was famously featured in a trailer for Morbius, but it was removed from the final film. The Venom movies reveal they are in a separate universe and even cross over into the MCU for a few minutes, but are sucked back to their world. It’s all very odd. However, rumors and concept art suggested that Tom Holland’s Spider-Man would play a vital role in Madame Web and be featured in the film.
Part of the plot revolves around Peter Parker’s mom being pregnant and her being attacked by the movie’s villain while in route to give labor. But there have been rumblings that the movie was originally intended to make this all more overt and that the entire movie would’ve been about the villain trying to prevent the birth of Peter Parker. Nevertheless, a leaked popcorn bucket posted by Reddit user Chemistry11 reveals that the movie would’ve had direct references to the MCU and other Spider-Man villains like the Green Goblin and Doc Ock.
The bucket and its companion drink cup makes note of Thanos, Thor, Hulk, Tony Stark, and even Drax the Destroyer as subjects of articles written by the Daily Bugle. According to the user, they received a shipment of these buckets less than a month prior to release, but were ordered to send them back so they could be destroyed. They then received a more simplified bucket with the logo for the movie. It’s very odd, but continues to prove that Sony had very little idea of what they were doing with Madame Web and its extended universe as a whole. Michael Keaton filmed a post-credit scene for Morbius where even he was confused about what exactly they were doing with the story.
It’s clear Sony had some intentions of trying to connect Madame Web to the MCU. Even if these references wouldn’t have been as direct in the movie, the popcorn bucket is clearly trying to make audiences make those connections themselves. As of right now, it seems like future Spider-Man spin-offs are on hold following the disappointment of Kraven the Hunter.
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