Posted in: Movies, Sony | Tagged: dakota johnson, film, Madame Web, marvel, sony pictures, Spider-Women

Madame Web Director Talks Spider-Women Screentime

The director of Sony's Madame Web explains the choice to keep all three Spider-Women origin stories on the back burner for now.

Published Sat, 24 Feb 2024 06:17:08 -0600

by Aedan Juvet

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Article Summary

Madame Web introduces Dakota Johnson as the lead in an ensemble superhero film.
Director S.J. Clarkson chose not to give full origin stories to three Spider-Women.
Clarkson aims to hint at the Spider-Women's true spirits for future exploration.
The film's modest box office might impact the future of these characters' appearances.

While everyone has their opinions about the outcome of Sony's Madame Web (honestly, I found it to be an enjoyable, campy superhero flick), there's no denying that the film was an ambitious endeavor for the rapidly growing Spider-Verse. At face value, the film obviously introduces viewers to the not-so-popular titular comic book character (with Dakota Johnson being a total MVP). Still, it also includes three costumed Spider-Women who essentially help make the film more of an ensemble flick. However, despite the film's action-centric marketing campaign with this costumed trio, the three Spider-Women aren't getting the chance to get their hands dirty outside of a few vision-like instances displaying the potential future. So why the hesitation about more Spider-Women sequences?

Madame Web Director on Spider-Women Appearances

When speaking to ComicBook.com, Madame Web director S.J. Clarkson explains, "I thought it would be a bit greedy to do four origin stories. That's not really fair, is it? I've got to share it." Clarkson adds, "But I hope the exciting thing about it is, this is a tease. And I think the origin story of the girls, we're given, hopefully, a hint of the spirit of who they are. We've tried to stick to the spirit from the comic books, and draw from that and find out who they are and get a little bit of their sass and a little bit of their character coming through. But that's a lot of story to tell, I think, in one [movie]. And I think it wouldn't do any of them justice to try and sort of crowbar or cram it all into one movie. So I think it's Madame Web's, and here's kind of the development of something else underneath it."

Madame Web has earned close to $25 million during its extended holiday weekend, which isn't great numbers for a big-budget superhero movie… So there's probably a marginal chance, at best, that we'll ever see these characters again in this capacity, but with the growing potential for a cult following, maybe there will be some unexpected multiverse-like cameo someday. Maybe?

Sony's Madame Web is in theaters now.

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