Emma Roberts is no stranger to the horror genre, whether we’re talking about her multiple roles on the long-running American Horror Story, her time Jill Roberts in Scream 4 or starring as Chanel Oberlin in the short-lived series Scream Queens. Today, however, brings news that Roberts is making her first foray into the superhero movie world thanks to the upcoming Madame Web.
The actress is the latest addition to what’s currently slated as the fifth entry in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, trailing behind Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Morbius and Kraven the Hunter, the latter of which is due out in January 2023. Deadline did not have any details on who Emma Roberts will play in Madame Web, but with the movie slated to hit theaters in summer, it’s likely to begin production soon. As such, fingers crossed we learn how Roberts fits into the picture in the near future.
Along with the aforementioned horror projects, Emma Roberts’ notable credits include Unfabulous, Aquamarine, Nancy Drew, Hotel for Dogs, We’re The Millers and The Hunt. She is the respective daughter and niece to fellow actors Eric Roberts and Julia Roberts, and she’s also been producing a variety of projects lately, including the recently-premiered supernatural series First Kill, which has become one of the most popular Netflix shows. Emma Roberts most recently appeared in the horror movie Abandoned, which came out earlier this month, and she’s also wrapped shooting the romantic comedy Maybe I Do.
A Madame Web movie was first reported to be in the works back in fall 2019, and the following year, S.J. Clarkson was tapped to direct. Since February though, the movie has been making steady progress forward, with Fifty Shades of Grey star Dakota Johnson being cast in the title role. The original incarnation of Madame Web in the comics is an elderly precognitive and clairvoyant mutant named Cassandra Webb, who has myasthenia gravis and is hooked up to a life support machine. It hasn’t been clarified yet if Johnson is playing a younger, more active version of Webb or one of the other women who’ve held the Madame Web mantle over the years, but the cinematic version of the character is described as Sony’s Doctor Strange.
Dakota Johnson and Emma Roberts are joined in Madame Web by Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O’Connor, Isabela Merced, and Tahar Rahim. Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, the screenwriters behind Morbius, penned the script. While the Jared Leto-starring vampire flick failed to impress critically and commercially (even accounting for a brief Morbius theatrical rerelease), Sony has had great commercial success with its Venom movies, and Spider-Man: No Way Home, a co-production with Marvel Studios, ended up being the biggest movie of 2021, making over $1.85 billion worldwide.
As we wait for more details about Madame Web holds in store, take a look through the 2022 release schedule to plan what movies you’ll watch later in the year.
