Credit: Marvel StudiosSpider-Man is arguably Marvel Entertainment’s most beloved hero, but now it seems that he’s being turned into the next big bad guy for a new movie.
Marvel fans have seen Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire all play the Amazing Spider-Man in recent years (not to mention the voices of Chris Pine and Jake Johnson as different versions of Peter Parker), but this is a pretty big step the character.
The antagonistic Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse might have been opposed to Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) joining the Spider-Society, but at least he was not assaulting police officers in a subway station, as we see in this new trailer for Madame Web, the upcoming Sony Pictures expansion of their shared Spider-Man universe.
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In fact, it feels like that quick scene could even be taken as a dark reference to Spider-Man 2 (2004), in which that version of Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) rescues a group of innocent people on a subway train by straining himself to impossible levels.
The version of Spider-Man that we see in the new trailer for Madame Web is definitely not Peter Parker, but it is clear that the SJ Clarkson-directed film is encouraging this new villain to be some kind of dark reflection of the character, from the webbed red costume on down to his powers.
Madame Web stars Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, a New York City paramedic who gains clairvoyant powers but also finds herself pursued by Ezekiel Sims (Tahir Rahim), the man dressed in a mysteriously Spider-Man-like costume.
Along the way, Cassandra Webb finds herself protecting three young women: Julia Carpenter (Sydney Sweeney), Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor), and Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced), all of whom also appear to gain spider-related powers over the course of the film.
While his connection to Spider-Man in Madame Web is not exactly clear, Ezekiel Sims is an established Marvel Comics character, if not a famous one. He has nearly identical powers to Peter Parker, a deep knowledge of various mystical aspects of the Spider-Man universe, and is a powerful and wealthy businessman. Sims is also generally portrayed as an older man with bare feet, so clearly, Tahir Rahim and Madame Web are not sticking exactly to the canon.
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It is clear that this dark version of Spider-Man is the villain of the film. Sony Pictures has been attempting to build a shared universe of movies around the properties it has licensed from Marvel without directly involving Spider-Man, beginning with Venom and now moving to Kraven the Hunter and Madame Web.
However, after Tom Holland’s brief uncredited cameo in Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) and Tom Hardy’s appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), it seems like the studio is getting more comfortable with some overlap. It’ll be interesting to see how Madame Web manages to depict such a Spider-Man-like villain without referencing why he looks exactly like a familiar friendly neighborhood hero.
Do you think Madame Web will directly reference Spider-Man? Shoot us your opinions in the comments below!