Moviefone Editorial

Tag: Spider-Verse

‘Euphoria’s Sydney Sweeney Joins ‘Madame Web’

Sydney Sweeney in HBO Max’s ‘Euphoria.’

Sony is moving forward with its Spider-Man-associated movie universe and has added a new cast member to one of the more intriguing titles it has bubbling away. Sydney Sweeney, one of the stars of ‘Euphoria’, is joining ‘Madame Web’.

While Deadline’s report doesn’t specify who Sweeney will be playing, we do know she’s joining Dakota Johnson in the movie.

Johnson, who has been seen recently in the Oscar nominated ‘The Lost Daughter’ and indie movies ‘Am I OK?’ and ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’, is playing the title character, or at least a version of her.

Originally created by writer Denny O’Neil and artist John Romita Jr., Madame Web first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #210, which was published in November 1980.

Known as Cassandra Webb, she is usually depicted as an elderly blind woman suffering from a chronic neuromuscular disease that makes it difficult to move and breathe, and as such, she’s connected to a life support system that looks like a spider web. The clairvoyant character has telepathic, precognitive, and astral projection abilities and once helped Spider-Man find a kidnap victim.

It doesn’t exactly sound like the basis for a thrilling superhero outing, but Madame Web’s history has crossed path with various heroes. Plus, as you might expect from a comic book character, there has been more than one holder of the title.

Photo courtesy of Marvel Entertainment.

In Amazing Spider-Man #636, Madame Web transfers her powers into a younger woman, Julia Carpenter, who takes over the role and oversees storylines such as Spider-Island, which finds all of Manhattan’s population developing Spider powers.

With Johnson’s casting, we’d imagine she’ll play someone closer to the Carpenter character, though there’s plenty of scope for a very different sort of comic book adaptation. And Madame Web has always been tied to multiverse stories, so given the current cinematic fascination with that subject, it’s not far-fetched to think that that could factor in.

Whatever it turns out to be, handling the job of making the movie is ‘Jessica Jones’ and ‘Succession’ director S.J. Clarkson, who would make her film directing debut here.

The script comes from Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, who worked from an earlier draft by Kerem Sanga.

Sweeney has been having quite the career moment right now – she has been a standout on ‘Euphoria’ a series that is not short of memorable performances and scenes, and her role on Mike White’s ‘The White Lotus’ also saw her win acclaim.

She’s appeared in lead roles in ‘The Voyeurs’ and vampire tale ‘Night Teeth’ and is currently shooting crime drama ‘National Anthem’. Though Sweeney has been acting for more than a decade, ‘Euphoria’ has opened a lot of doors for her, and she was considering several offers alongside the ‘Madame Web’ role.

‘Madame Web’ has yet to confirm a release date, but the next Sony Marvel movie to arrive in theaters will be vampire adventure ‘Morbius’, starring Jared Leto sinking its fangs into screens on April 1st.
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March 17, 2022
Ariana DeBose Cast in ‘Kraven the Hunter’

Ariana DeBose at the 5th Annual Hollywood Critics Association Awards.

As the studio continues to build the cast for its latest superhero – or in this case, super- antihero – movie, Sony has opted for a popular, award-winning performer to join the cast of ‘Kraven the Hunter.’ Ariana DeBose, who played Anita in Steven Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’, has joined the movie as the character Calypso, according to Deadline.

J.C. Chandor is directing the film, which already has Aaron Taylor-Johnson starring as Sergei Kravinoff, AKA Kraven.

Just in case you’ve somehow forgotten, he’s a regular antagonist for Spider-Man, who in the pages of the comics, has encountered (and caused violent problems for) a number of heroes.

Kravinoff, created by Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, made his debut in The Amazing Spider-Man #15 in 1964. A maniacal big-game hunter, he made it his mission in life to prove his abilities by beating Spidey. But he’s also been portrayed as something of an antihero and has even fought alongside the web-crawler at times.

As for DeBose’s character, Calypso originated in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man #209 in 1980, created by Denny O’Neil and Alan Weiss. She’s a voodoo priestess who has powerful mind control and potion-based magical powers. She’s most closely associated with Kraven and has been his romantic partner at times. But the relationship between the two has always been combustible.

Kraven the Hunter in the ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ animated series.

The new casting recruit joins the likes of Russell Crowe and ‘The White Lotus’ Fred Hechinger. While Crowe’s role remains a mystery, there has been talk of the film featuring Kraven’s family, so he may well be the character’s father. Hechinger, meanwhile, is playing Chameleon, a master of disguise who is also Kraven’s brother.

DeBose, a celebrated stage actor who has appeared in the likes of ‘Hamilton’ and Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, has been winning plenty of plaudits for her performance in ‘West Side Story’, which is no small feat given that the role of Anita was originated on screen by Rita Moreno, who also appears in the new movie and won an Oscar for the 1961 version.

Thus far, DeBose has won both the SAG Award and the Golden Globe for her work, and she’s nominated for the BAFTA and Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She has Matthew Vaughn’s spy thriller ‘Argylle’, starring Henry Cavill, on the way and will also be seen in sci-fi movie ‘I.S.S.’, set aboard the International Space Station. The story for that one feels a little too close to home right now, as war breaks out between Russia and the West and astronauts are ordered to take control of the station.

Chandor is working from a script by Art Marcum & Matt Holloway and Richard Wenk that has been in development for a while now but has taken a big leap forward. ‘Kraven the Hunter’ is currently taking aim at a January 13, 2023 release in theaters.

Next up for Sony’s Marvel productions is ‘Morbius’, which put out its final trailer yesterday and arrives in theaters on April 1. And not forgetting the animated sequel ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – Part One’, due on October 7.
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March 1, 2022
Final ‘Morbius’ Trailer is Full of Action

Jared Leto in Columbia Pictures’ ‘Morbius.’

Even accounting for pandemic delays and other schedule quirks, it’s really beginning to feel like Jared Leto is in a big prosthetics phase. Between ‘House of Gucci’, upcoming TV series ‘WeCrashed’ and ‘Morbius’, he’s up for changing his appearance in big way. And talking of the living vampire, the final trailer for the Sony/Marvel film is now online.

Leto here is Dr. Michael Morbius. Dangerously ill with a rare blood disorder and determined to save others suffering his same fate, the troubled medic attempts a desperate gamble. While at first it seems to be a radical success, a darkness inside him is unleashed. Will good override evil – or will Morbius succumb to his mysterious new urges?

And to put it more specifically, his research into far flung blood possibilities and natural cures brings him into contact with vampirism, leading to a shocking transformation. Soon, he’s gifted with enhanced speed and strength (plus a variety of other abilities, including a version of sonar and flight, after a fashion) but cursed with a driving desire to hunt down and consume blood.
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Created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane and first arriving in the pages of “The Amazing Spider-Man” in 1971, Morbius was considered as a potential character when Artisan bought the rights to several Marvel titles as possible movies, but nothing came of it.

With Sony taking on the character, it has been in development for a while, but finally came to fruition under director Daniel Espinosa (‘Life’), alongside writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless.

Though Sony has largely kept its non-MCU Marvel movies away from direct connections with the Disney side of things, we’re increasingly seeing connections – Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes, AKA Spider-Man: Homecoming’s Vulture, who here appears to be encouraging Morbius to become who he’s supposed to be. Which, we can only assume, means a villain.

Likewise, Matt Smith’s Loxias Crown (another character drawn from the pages of Marvel’s comics output), a vampire-linked baddie who wants Morbius to join his crusade against us more normal, living folk.

Also in the cast is Jared Harris, playing Emil Nikols, another character from the Morbius comics, who appears to be on exposition duty here.

(L to R) Jared Leto and Adria Arjona in Columbia Pictures’ ‘Morbius.’

Adria Arjona is Martin Bancroft, also linked to Morbius, while Tyrese Gibson and Al Madrigal are more on the comic relief front at times, as the law enforcement types tracking Morbius’ activity.

And there are clear links to ‘Venom’, Sony looking to build out its own corner of Marvel adaptations. The biggest question here is whether ‘Morbius’ will pull off the same trick – bringing the character to screens while overcoming potentially negative critical reactions to find an audience willing to embrace a wilder side of Marvel.

The various pandemic-related release shifts haven’t helped assuage those concerns, and questions arose as to why Sony didn’t move the movie back closer to ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ to coast off the success of that release.

Still, with claws crossed, the movie will be vamping its way into theaters from April 1.
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February 28, 2022
Russell Crowe Joins ‘Kraven the Hunter’

Russell Crowe in ‘Gladiator’ (Photo by Karine Weinberger/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Up until a few years ago, we’d have been more surprised to report that the Russell Crowe of today had signed up to co-star in a superhero movie. But following his work with Zack Snyder’s ‘Man of Steel‘/’Justice League‘ films and having taken a role in the upcoming ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’, we’re not so shocked to learn that he’ll be part of the cast for Sony’s ‘Kraven the Hunter.’

This represents another attempt by the studio to expand its Spider-universe of movies, though a film focusing on Kraven has been in the works for a while now. ‘Triple Frontier’ and ‘A Most Violent Year’ director J.C. Chandor has been attached for a couple of years and in May of 2021, Aaron Taylor-Johnson stepped aboard to play the title character.

The character of Kraven the Hunter, born Sergei Kravinoff, is a big-game hunter who likes to take down his prey with his bare hands. Kraven meets a witch doctor who gives him a potion that enhances his senses and powers and slows down the aging process. To prove himself as the world’s greatest hunter, Kraven wants to take down Spider-Man.

First dreamt up by Spidey co-creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Kraven made his debut in the pages of 1964’s ‘The Amazing Spider-Man No. 15,’ and has made numerous appearances in Marvel Comics titles since then. His most famous storyline might be classic 1980s tale ‘Kraven’s Last Hunt,’ in which the villain succeeded in defeating Spider-Man, burying him alive, and assuming his identity.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson to play the popular Spider-Man villain in Sony’s ‘Kraven the Hunter’

The Hollywood Reporter’s story on Crowe’s casting makes no mention of whether Tom Holland’s Peter Parker might appear in the film, and for now, we can assume it’ll be focused on Kraven. The exact plot, written in different drafts by ‘Iron Man’ duo Art Marcum & Matt Holloway and ‘The Equalizer’s Richard Wenk, is being kept locked away for now, as is par for the course with movies like this.

And indeed, ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ was at one point potentially going to feature the character if the multiverse story hadn’t come together. Tom Holland told Collider last December that director Jon Watts had a taker on the idea. “For a long time, there was going to be a Kraven movie that was going to be the third movie because things weren’t working out and all sorts of different stuff. Jon pitched me this Kraven movie, which actually was really cool. I don’t want to talk about it in case that movie ends up happening down the line, but it was fun.”

Given that Kraven was hinted at among the shadows of characters glimpsed in the multiverse rift at the end of ‘No Way Home’, you know Sony is aiming to have the characters meet down the line. For now, we don’t know who Crowe will be playing, though several characters are reportedly members of Kraven’s family, and we can certainly see him as a tough dad.

Crowe, as mentioned, has ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ due in theaters on July 8 this year.
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‘Kraven the Hunter’ is currently targeting a January 13, 2023 release.
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February 9, 2022
Dakota Johnson in Talks for ‘Madame Web’

Dakota Johnson at the premiere of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’

Having won plenty of acclaim (and some awards nominations) for her role in Netflix’s ‘The Lost Daughter’, Dakota Johnson is looking to become a superhero in a future movie. She’s now in talks to star in Sony’s ‘Madame Web’.

The movie, which is part of the studio’s interconnected Marvel Spider-Man universe (not to be confused with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with which it links from time to time), has been in development for a while.

S.J. Clarkson, who has Marvel form with Netflix’s ‘The Defenders’ shows and has worked on shows including ‘Succession’ and ‘Made for Love’, is aiming to make her movie directorial debut. The script comes from Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, the ‘Dracula Untold’ and ‘The Last Witch Hunter’ writers who have fellow Spider-adjacent movie ‘Morbius’ due in theaters on April 1.

Madame Web as a Marvel Comics character was created by writer Denny O’Neil and artist John Romita Jr., first appearing in The Amazing Spider-Man #210, which was published in November 1980.

Known as Cassandra Webb, she is usually depicted as an elderly blind woman suffering from a chronic neuromuscular disease that makes it difficult to move and breathe, and as such, she’s connected to a life support system that looks like a spider web. The clairvoyant character has precognitive abilities and once helped Spider-Man find a kidnap victim.

Tom Holland in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’

She doesn’t sound like the basis for a compelling dynamic superhero movie… But wait! There’s more. As is so often the case with Marvel, there has been another version.

When Webb died, she passed her powers on to Julia Carpenter, who was the second incarnation of Spider-Woman and similarly became the second version of Madame Web. It’s unclear which version the film will focus on, but given Johnson’s age in relation to both characters, you figure she’ll play Carpenter. Or both if they slap aging make-up on her initially.

Sony originally announced the movie back in 2019, and it has moved through the tricky development process more smoothly (aside from obvious pandemic delays) than some of the company’s other planned Spider-projects. Aside from the successful ‘Into the Spider-Verse’ movie, which has spun-off two sequels (the first, ‘Across the Spider-Verse Part One’ is due out October 7, the second in 2023) and both ‘Venom’ films, Sony has had mixed fortunes with its Marvel movies.

The Jared Leto-starring ‘Morbius’ has been delayed several times, while others, including ‘Silver and Black’ which was to have featured Silver Sable and Black Cat, are stuck at the script stage. Still, Sony has Olivia Wilde working on an untitled movie, and projects based on Kraven the Hunter and Silk still moving forward.

‘Madame Web’ doesn’t yet have a release date, but it does at least seem like it’ll shoot this year.

Though Sony had been looking at a long list of names, Johnson jumped to the head of the queue likely thanks to strong work in ‘Lost Daughter’ and other movies that have received praise at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, including ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’ and ‘Am I OK?’. She will next be seen in Jane Austen adaptation ‘Persuasion’, which will be out this year.
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February 3, 2022