If you are a fan of everything Spider Man, there has never been such an exciting time to be a superhero movie lover. In addition to Marvel Studios’ decision to pull the trigger for a multiverse Spider-Men fantasy dream team in Spider-Man: No Way Home by showing the likes of Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield and Tobey McGuire all on screen at once, no one can forget that Sony Pictures Entertainment is following suit by tiptoeing in Spider-Man’s universe too.
With the releases of venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnageand morbius (with the latter being pretty poorly received by fans and critics alike) in their pocket, Sony seems to be slowly laying the groundwork for their own web-slinging world with a slew of debuting characters.
In September 2019, Sony Pictures made a blockbuster announcement when they hired movie writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless to bring another rich knowledge but theatrically unexplored Spider Man character to the big screen, the infamous Madame Web. Cassandra Webb (real name Madame Web) began her eventful existence in Spider Man history as an elderly woman suffering from a disease known as myasthenia gravis.
In her most famous memorable appearances to date, Madame Web is portrayed as not only physically handicapped, but also blind. This is because the myasthenia gravis quickly shuts down the entire neuromuscular skeletal system of the body. Thankfully, her superhero alias puts a light-hearted spin on this debilitating condition. The many wires and cords that power the life support system that keeps Webb alive all tower behind her like some giant spider web.
Different versions of Madame Web
Don’t let Madame Web’s frail appearance and very limited mobility fool you into thinking her on-screen debut in Sony’s Spider Man Universe will be unobtrusive. Compensating for her skeletal condition, she is gifted with evolved abilities of the mind’s eye. Madame Web can harness the powers of telepathy, use clairvoyance to see all the possibilities of the future, perform psychic surgery on others if necessary, and use the art of astral projection. Using these powers, she has teamed up with the likes of Spider-Man, Spider-Girl, Spider-Woman, Spider-Gwen, and Silk, among other notable Marvel characters.
The synopsis for the Madame Web movie follows that of an origin story. Since the role for the title character was given to 32-year-old actress Dakota Johnson, the question is whether the story will be centered around the much older Cassandra Webb or a much younger, alternate version of the heroine instead. In July 2022, while on the set of Madame Web, Johnson was seen dressed in an outfit known to Julia Carpenter, the second Spider-Woman, to whom the original Madame Web gave her powers just before she died.
The question of which version we will see naturally opens up another ingredient of the Madame Web film that is just as important, but has yet to be recognized. As with any movie in the superhero genre, the hero must have a counter force to overcome and defeat by the time the credits creep up the screen. At the time of writing, no such character has been confirmed for Madame Web.
Well-known villains lay the foundation
While no press releases have been released yet, a very interesting fan theory has been gaining traction on Reddit lately. An r/FanTheories poster states that the film’s opponent will be the fourth Spider Woman, Charlotte Witter, who turns into a villain when the formidable Doctor Octopus captures her and implants spider-like limbs on her back. She is then tasked with going back in time and killing a yet-to-be-birth Peter Parker, which in turn would stop any trouble Doc Ock might have with his own nefarious goals in the future.
With her clairvoyance, Madame Web learns of his cunning plan and honorably summons three other Spider-Women to take down Witter before stopping the prized timeline we’ve come to love.
Another possibility for the main villain of the Madame Web movie is Kraven the Hunter’s daughter, Ana Kravinoff. Deep in the pages of the Great Spider Man comic book series, Ana kills the original Madame Web in a failed attempt to bring back dead relatives (one of them is her father). By combining that original plotline with the fact that Sony Pictures is a Kraven the hunter movie in January 2023, chances are Kraven’s daughter is a pivotal part of the movie.
Because most of the confirmed casting announcements for Madame Web There are plenty of female actresses whose roles in the film have not yet been publicly announced, the characters of Charlotte Witter and Cassandra Webb are both very viable story options.
In addition to those two favorable contenders, there’s also a chance that the film’s main antagonist will have a more Spider Man-centric villain like Chameleon, Electro or even the Jackal. They’ve all argued with Madame Web at different times. Whoever the writers and producers choose to oppose Madame Web and her psychic abilities, this theatrical entry into Sony’s Spider Man Universe is sure to be a hit with audiences when it hits theaters on October 6, 2023.