Every installment in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe has fallen into the exact same traps, and even though the would-be franchise is barely even three movies deep, it’s been enough to crater excitement for anything that doesn’t have Venom in the title, and even at that it’s not as if Tom Hardy’s outings as Eddie Brock were drowning in critical acclaim.
Morbius was a disaster so hilarious it flopped twice over after the studio completely failed to grasp the concept that people were laughing at it and not with, while the jury is still out on Kraven the Hunter now that we’ve got another eight months to chew on a trailer that delivered plenty of R-rated violence, but still looks ominously destined to suffer from Sony’s curse.
That leads us onto Madame Web, which has so far generated very little buzz and even less confidence, but at least we do know that Sydney Sweeney is definitely playing Julia Carpenter after she confirmed it herself in an interview with Variety, before promising a deviation from the typical comic book formula.
“I was freaking out, of course. I went straight to the comic store, and I bought every comic that mentioned my character. I think it’s different from what people expect a superhero movie to be,” she hints. “Quote that! That’s a quote, because the tabloids will pick up everything else we talk about.”
Different is always good, but when Sony is behind it, then it becomes a little more ominous. For all we know, Madame Web could prove to be a classic, but it’s hard to shake off the stigma that comes with the company that’s killed a great deal more superhero properties than it’s managed to salvage.