Thanks to the box-office success of “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” which raked in over $500 million worldwide, Sony Pictures has high hopes for its future Spidey-verse movies. And while critics and audiences loathed “Morbius,” it did make a modest profit and finish first at the box office on its opening weekend. All the more reason for Sony to make its next Spidey-adjacent venture, “Madame Web,” that much more bankable as it approaches release next summer.
Sony’s done just that as Deadline reports that Isabela Merced joins the cast of the upcoming film. Merced joins Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, and Celeste O’Connor in a female-heavy ensemble. Plot details are slim about “Madame Web” so far, and it’s a bit of an industry mystery what Sony’s plans are for the film. In the comics, the title character is an older woman with myasthenia gravis connected to a life-support unit that looks like a spider web. So, not exactly an action-packed premise. On the other hand, Madame Web also has psychic powers in the comics, so this could end up being an exciting project. No word on who anyone plays yet, but TV director S.J. Clarkson directs a script by “Morbius” writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless.
Coming off a performance alongside Jason Momoa in Netflix’s “Sweet Girl” last year, Merced has a busy calendar ahead of her. She’s onscreen next in the Warner Bros. remake of “Father Of The Bride” with Andy Garcia and Gloria Estefan. She also stars as Juliet alongside Kaitlyn Dever in 20th Century’s revisionist take on “Romeo & Juliet,” and “Rosaline.” She also has a lead role in HBO Max’s adaptation of John Green’s best-selling YA novel “Turtles All The Way Down.”
Who knows where “Madame Web” will end up on the Sony Spidey-verse spectrum? “Spider-Man: No Way Home” raked in more than $1.85 billion at the global box office, making it the biggest movie of 2021. On the other hand, there’s “Morbius.” And, if we’re being honest, the “Venom” films are middling guilty pleasures, two peculiar takes on the superhero movie that aren’t exactly high quality. Still, Spider-Man is a lucrative property, so maybe Isabela Merced & co. will make “Madame Web” a must-see movie in 2023.