Dakota Johnson in talks to play Madame Web in Spider-Man spinoff

Spider-Man: No Way Home is well on its way to becoming one of the most successful movies of all time, and Sony is taking full advantage. The studio is working to build its own Spider-verse. It’s already put out two Venom movies, Morbius is on the way, and they have a Kraven the Hunter movie planned with Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the title role.

And now, The Hollywood Reporter has it that Sony is in talks with Fifty Shades of Grey veteran Dakota Johnson to play the lead role in a movie about Madame Web, one of the stranger Spider-Man supporting characters. First introduced into Marvel comics in the ’80s, Madame Web is usually depicted as an elderly paralyzed woman hooked up to a web-like machine she needs to survive.

Madame Web has mentored Peter Parker as well as several people who take on the role of Spider-Woman. Not much of a fighter, she usually remains in the background, planning things and sending others on missions. Given that she generally keeps a low profile, you wonder how Sony will make a superhero movie about her, but that could give them an opportunity to do something a little different from the standard superhero fare.

Dakota Johnson may play Spider-Man character Madame Web 

As for Johnson, she’s mostly taken on smaller, independent fare since the end of the Fifty Shades trilogy; if she lands the role of Madame Web, it’ll be the highest-profile thing she’s done in a while.

There’s no release date for the Madame Web movie as yet. It’s being written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, who are also behind Morbius. That movie is scheduled to come out on April 1.

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