‘Madame Web’ Is a Disaster, But It Won’t Change Sony’s Spider-Verse

The big picture

• Despite the low ratings for
  Madame Web
  Sony's Spider-Verse remains intact until 2025 with upcoming releases,
  Kraven the Hunter
  i
  Poison 3
  .
• Sony's focus on supporting characters in the Spider-Verse backfired, resulting in flops like Madame Web and Morbius.
• To save the Spider-Verse, Sony should build on successful projects like In the Spider-Verse, consider small screen adaptations, and avoid interfering creatively.

Madame WebSony's latest Marvel offering, stars Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, a New York paramedic who discovers she has the gift of clairvoyance and uses it to help keep three young men safe from the evil Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim), who is determined to kill those responsible for his death in the future. The film was number two (in more ways than one) at the box office upon its debut, earning a projected $26 million. (More than six days, by the way, not over the weekend.) That puts it behind 2022 morbius' $39 million debut, and its Rotten Tomatoes rating is 13%, down morbius'15%. Let this sink in. As overwhelmingly bad as morbius is, Madame Web it's even worse. with Kraven the Hunter i Poison 3 on the horizon, which means the disaster that is Madame Web mean for Sony's Spider-Man Universe? Not much.

Sony's Spider-Verse is staying alive until at least 2025

Despite the extremely poor critical and commercial reception of Sony's Morbius and Madame Web, there are two projects slated for release in 2024: Kraven the Hunter in August, i Poison 3 in november As a result, the debacle is unlikely to be Madame Web will affect these releases ie Sony's Spider-Verse lives on until at least 2025. Of the two, Poison 3 is Sony's only sure win, especially after Venom/Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) appearance on the credit media scene of Spider-Man: No Way Home. That movie brought the two Sony Spider-Men, Tobey Maguire i Andrew Garfieldin the MCU next door Tom Holland also, that you can take into account Poison 3the story line.

Kraven the Hunter is the wild card here. If successful, Sony's Spider-Verse reverses its troubling trend, Sony looks bright to stick to their guns and continue their streak of Spider-Verse-sans-Spider-Man projects that are in development or have been rumoured. But that's a big, big yes. The smart money is on Kraven the Hunter crashing and burning, fighting morbius i Madame Web for the exclusive possession of the last place. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who is playing Kraven, just isn't a big name. For that matter, neither does Kraven. Despite being a longtime nemesis of Spider-Man in the comics (debuting in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man #15 in August 1964), Kraven is not a name the general public knows, and those who do may not appreciate Kraven becoming an “animal lover” and “a protector of the natural world”. Which puts Sony's Spider-Verse exactly where it is now.

Sony is killing its own Spider-Verse

Madame Web it's just the latest in Sony's apparent intent to destroy its own Spider-Verse. They're determined to try and make a Spider-Verse out of secondary and peripheral characters, becoming a punch line for a joke they seem unaware of. They cannot even successfully attempt a self-deprecating enterprise, as the new publication of morbiuswhich was meant to capitalize on its meme popularity, turned out to be a complete failure.

Even this latest blow is starting to show that Sony refuses to learn anything from its failures. In what can be seen as a knee-jerk reaction Madame Webthe poor performance of the Spider-Verse live-action spin-off series Silk: Spider Society has been cancelled. Before that, the writers were let go, with the series being reworked. Not in an effort to improve the quality of the project, mind you, but to make it more appealing to the “male audience”. In other words, because the woman-centered Madame Web doesn't work as expected, apparently no female-centric project will.

How can Sony save its Spider-Verse?

As silly as it is, Madame Web, for now, hasn't really changed Sony's plans for its Spider-Verse. But let's imagine Sony learns from its mistakes. What should Sony do in the future? use what is working for your benefit. Both of us Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse i Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse are the polar opposite of Madame Web i morbius, both enjoying popularity among critics and viewers. Lean more into this world. Make the Miles Morales Spider-Man Live Action Movie the best Spidey movie yet. Give Spider-Gwen her own movie!

Another option? Take a page from DC's playbook and divert projects to the small screen. While the DCEU was tearing fans apart with films that made them swell or break their hearts, DC was gaining goodwill with its TV offerings. With shows like Superman and Lois, Arrow, the flashi Supergirl, DC triumphantly brought comic book-accurate heroes to weekly television. Max DC shows Doom Patrol, Harley Quinni Peacemaker to serve an adult audience, with much acclaim. withthe Spider-Man Noir series in development, may be the first step for Sony to make a splash with its small-screen Spider-Verse projects.

Viewers are a notoriously forgiving bunch, so instead of trying to chase what I could work, apologize for giving us a bad taste in our mouths with a lower than normal rate, and we just do it better. Oh, and for the love of all things holy, Sony, get the devil out of your way. Time and time again, your interference has only served to hinder the creative talents behind your Spider-Verse films, especially Sam Raimithe work of Spiderman 3i your proposal Spider-Man 4. We can't see the future as Madame Web, but we sure hope it's better than Sony's present.

Madame Web is now available on Netflix in the US

Watch on Netflix