Madame Web: Release Date, Cast, & Everything We Know So Far

Madame Web is an upcoming movie in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) and based on everything that's been revealed, it's an important entry in the franchise. Madame Web is a superhero in the Spider-Man comic books, and she's a mutant and clairvoyant, meaning that she has extrasensory powers that allow her to magically attain information about almost anything. The original Madame Web was a blind elderly woman who was connected to a life support system that looked like a spiderweb. Before she was murdered by Ana Kravinoff, she passed her powers down to Julia Carpenter, leading to her becoming the new, modern Madame Web.

Following the critical and commercial disappointment of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, a lot of different Spider-Man projects were canceled and left in limbo, including a solo movie focusing on Silver Sable and Black Cat. However, as Sony has built the SSU alongside the studio's partnership with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, those projects were dropped in favor of a Madame Web movie. And given Madame Web's powers and ties to the multiverse, it makes a lot more sense and opens up way more possibilities. Madame Web will be set in the same universe as Morbius and the Venom movies, and the addition to the upcoming Spider-Man movie roster looks to explore some fertile ground in terms of crossovers.

The new Madame Web trailer has revealing much more about the movie and its place in the Sony Spider-Man universe, giving insight into the film's plot and letting audiences see some of the cast in their roles for the first time.

Madame Web Is Confirmed

The Madame Web movie was first confirmed in 2019 and Sony tapped writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless to write the screenplay (via Collider). Those two penned the script for 2022's Morbius which is also part of Sony's shared Spider-Man Universe along with the Venom franchise and the upcoming Kraven the Hunter film. Madame Web didn't begin filming until July 2022 and star Dakota Johnson confirmed in January 2023 that filming had wrapped (via Coming Soon). The movie is directed by S.J. Clarkson, who has helmed Marvel TV shows like Jessica Jones and The Defenders in the past.

Madame Web Release Date

Madame Web is seemingly repeating Deadpool's trick of counter-programming over Valentine's Day weekend, which was what helped the 2016 movie become such a huge success. Madame Web is scheduled for release on February 14, 2024, and while Morbius was a box office bomb, the theatrically released 2024 movie should be a hit, as it doesn't currently have any competition during its opening weekend.

However, it is worth noting that the movie was pushed back from its original October 2023 release date, seemingly since Kraven the Hunter occupied that space. That said, the latter supervillain movie has since been delayed to an August 2024 release date, suggesting it and Madame Web don't have shared story aspects, since it has been moved to now release after Madame Web, not before.

Madame Web Cast

Madame Web has made some interesting casting choices so far, even if it's still far from clear who every actor is playing at the current time. The movie stars Dakota Johnson as the main titular character, with Sydney Sweeney playing Julia Carpenter and Celeste O'Connor as Mattie Franklin - formally introducing two different versions of Spider-Woman into the live-action universe. Isabela Merced will also be taking on the role of Anya Corazon, allowing the Marvel movie to adapt some of Spider-Man's more interesting but arguably less appreciated characters. Emma Roberts, Mike Epps, Adam Scott, and Zosia Mamet will all also appear in the film, but they're all in currently undisclosed roles - though Roberts and Scott are theorized to be Mary and Ben Parker respectively.

The Madame Web trailer also reveals more about the movie's villain casting, as Tahar Rahim's iteration of Spider-Man villain Ezekiel Sims is shown, revealing what the previous on-set teases of Rahim in a superhero outfit that looks a lot like a Spider-Man costume were actually for. This makes the impending Madame Web story all the more intriguing, as Sims is a brilliant but often underrated Spider-Man villain, and his comic storylines have him possess great knowledge about the nature of the universe - which would be very helpful for the idea that Madame Web may flesh out more about the interconnected nature of the Spider-Man multiverse.

Madame Web Plot Details

The Madame Web trailer confirms that the movie will tell the origin story of Madame Web herself, showcasing her psychic abilities and establishing her as a cornerstone of the Sony Spider-Man universe. The trailer builds on this by providing her a nemesis in the form of Ezekiel Sims, who appears to be hunting both her and the other Spider-People in the film, with Sims' statement that "you have no idea what those girls become," suggesting that he may be attempting to prevent some future crisis occurring through his efforts - akin to Spider-Man 2099 hunting down Miles to try and prevent him from potentially sabotaging the future of the multiverse in Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse.

The introduction of the Web of Live & Destiny in Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse also makes the possibility of Madame Web exploring the concept further more likely. In the comics, this web is the source of Madame Web's precognitive abilities, and thus the concept appearing in recent history on the big screen could allow for the Madame Web movie to utilize it to its fullest, especially as this would make crossovers more viable. Theories also suggest Mary and Ben Parker may appear in the movie, with Sims potentially additionally targeting them to try and prevent Peter Parker from ever existing - which would notably also suggest that Madame Web is set well before other Sony Spider-Man Universe movies if true.

Madame Web Trailer

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The Madame Web trailer released on November 15 2023. The trailer provides a 3-minute window into the overall plot and world of the impending Marvel movie, and has raised audience excitement for the project considerably by shedding light on many of the bigger questions surrounding its story - though more may be revealed in the time period between this trailer's release and the final release of th film.

How Madame Web Fits In The SSU (& MCU)

Sony has already attempted to cross over the events of the MCU Spider-Man trilogy with the SSU, but it didn't have much of an impact. The Vulture (Michael Keaton), who was the villain in Spider-Man: Homecoming, returned in a Morbius post-credits scene, and Eddie Brock briefly appeared in the MCU universe, but the logistics and science of it all didn't make any sense, and it created one giant plot hole. However, Madame Web can fix that. As one of Madame Web's powers is being able to switch between universes, the 2024 movie could seamlessly tie everything together in a way that makes much more sense - especially if it is set before the other films, as has been theorized based on the design choices shown in the Madame Web trailer.

As Morbius met with Vulture in the Morbius post-credits scene, they spoke about other like-minded villains who might want to "team up," according to Vulture. That could all be building up to the multiversal events of Madame Web, with the movie either set chronologically before all this and serving to flesh out the nature of the multiverse itself, or set after and capitalizing on the groundwork laid by prior movies. With Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse reinforcing the idea of a linked Spider-Verse - which canonically includes both MCU and SSU live-action universes - this opportunity has become more and more possible, and gives Madame Web far greater potential than ever before.