Credit: Inside the MagicMarvel is currently expanding their Spider-Team to include many more female heroes.
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It’s not just Tom Holland’s Spider-Man/Peter Parker who exists in the Multiverse of the Marvel Studios Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). In fact, it isn’t even technically limited to The Walt Disney Company-owned intellectual properties (IP), as audiences have seen in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). All of this is because the Spider-Man IP actually belongs to Sony, and it’s only through a very particular deal between both studios that the character of Spider-Man even shows up in the MCU.
However, that doesn’t seem to stop the Multiverse from expanding to encompass an ever-growing number of Spider-People. Now, the stage is set for even more web-slingers to enter the picture.
Spider-Man at the Movies
Everyone knows the story of Peter Parker’s Spider-Man, and his ultimate lesson of “with great power comes great responsibility”. Over the years, many have taken up that mantle across various Spider-Man films inspired by the Stan Lee-originated Marvel Comics of the same name. These Tobey Maguire from 2002’s Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield’s 2012 The Amazing Spider-Man, and of course, Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Tom Holland, originating in Captain America: Civil War (2016) and his first standalone film Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). Now that Holland’s version of Spider-Man has essentially been forgotten by the world after Doctor Strange’s spell gone awry in No Way Home, it seems like the owners of the Spidey IP are ready to expand the franchise even further — without the MCU’s Holland at the Spidey helm.
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Because it’s not just those live-action versions of Spidey that matter, or even the multitude of variant Spider-People in Sony’s Spider-Verse series of blockbuster animated films — beginning with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), soon-to-release Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (2024). Recently, Sony’s Madame Web (2023) starring Dakota Johnson as the titular Madame Web has been the subject of much speculation. Directed by S.J Clarkson, this will add to Sony’s slate of Spider-Man Universe (SSU) films — ironically, without a known, central Spider-Man character, and instead with this new team of Spider-Women.
Madame Web, and Marvel’s new female Spidey team
Currently, the Sony Spider-Man Universe features Tom Hardy’s (Eddie Brock) Venom (2018) and the sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), as well as the much-memed Morbius (2022) starring Jared Leto (Morbius). In the interest of villains, Aaron Taylor-Johnson will take on the role of Kraven the Hunter in Kraven (2023). Madame Web is expected to arrive in cinemas on February 16, 2024, and follow Dakota Johnson as Madame Web, a clairvoyant with psychic abilities that grant her visions into the “spider world”. Sydney Sweeney joins the cast as Julia Carpenter. The film also features Celeste O’Connor, Isabela Merced, Tahar Rahim, Emma Roberts, Mike Epps, Adam Scott, and Zosia Mamet in undisclosed roles.
It seems like one Sydney Sweeney is particularly excited about the new movie, and the actress recently opened up to Total Film magazine (via Games Radar) to talk about the influx of new female superheroes to the Marvel film world. Female characters like MJ or Gwen Stacy are no stranger to Peter Parker’s story — but it seems we won’t be seeing many “damsels in distress” in this new movie. According to Sweeney, it appears that Johnson, Merced, and O’Connor will join Sweeney’s Julia Carpenter to become a “powerhouse of badass females” for the Marvel film universe. Sweeney is ecstatic, and “can’t wait to be next to the girls [she] filmed with”, because they “had so much fun together”:
I can’t wait to be able to be next to the girls that I filmed with – Dakota and Isabela, and Celeste. We had so much fun together. And I’m really excited that it’s just gonna be a powerhouse of badass females for the world to see.
The Emmy-nominated actress has previously expressed the same excitement to be joining this expanding universe of heroes — citing in an interview with ELLE that she had “fought for the character” in Madame Web.
Overall, it really seems that Marvel are ready to expand their own live-action “Spider-Verse”. With many rumors going around that the Now Way Home trio of Spider-Men might just turn up in Sony’s incoming animated Spider-Verse entries — who knows where everyone will be come 2026’s Avengers: Secret Wars.
What do you think about Marvel expanding the Spider-Man universe to include these new “badass female” heroes? Share your thoughts in the comments below!