Sony's Spider-Man Universe is continuing to expand. For now the franchise consists of just two branches – Venom and Morbius – but that is set to change quickly. J.C. Chandor’s Kraven The Hunter is going to come out in October 2023, and just a few months after that will see the arrival of S.J. Clarkson’s Madame Web. Much about the plot of the film is unknown, except that we know it’s about the titular character, a clairvoyant who is able to use her powers to see things in the Spider World, according to Deadline, but what we do know is that there is a star-studded cast attached.
Announced in 2019 and based on a screenplay written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (Dracula Untold, Gods of Egypt), Madame Web started production in the second half of 2022 in preparation for its upcoming 2024 release, and it was very busy on the casting front. Below, we’ve cataloged all of the actors who have signed on to the comic book blockbuster thus far, and, where possible, the roles they will be playing.
Dakota Johnson
Dakota Johnson’s star has been rising in Hollywood ever since playing the lead in the Fifty Shades Of Grey trilogy, but in the last few years she has been making waves in indie movies, and now she is ready to make her first comic book blockbuster. Johnson will star as the titular lead in Madame Web, though it is expected that the character will be extremely different from the comics (where the clairvoyant hero is an elderly woman with a neuromuscular disease that requires her to be connected to a spider web-esque life support system.
Sydney Sweeney
Sydney Sweeney is another star who is joining the movie, as announced in March 2022. Up to this point in her career, Sydney Sweeney has been best known for her work on the small screen – the actor presently stars in Euphoria and also has popular titles like The Handmaid’s Tale, Sharp Objects, and The White Lotus on her filmography. She has had some interesting feature appearances, having a small part in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, but Madame Web is expected to be her most significant film role to date. Sweeney will be playing Julia Carpenter, according to Total Film.
Celeste O’Connor
Next up is Celeste O’Connor, who was announced to be joining the cast in May 2022, according to Deadline. The Kenyan actress made her feature film debut in 2017 with a role in Wetlands opposite Heather Graham and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. She followed that up with two streaming movies – 2018’s Irreplaceable You and 2019’s Selah And The Spades – and then had roles in both 2020’s Freaky and 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife. She’s most recently completed work on Zach Braff’s latest directorial effort, A Good Person, which co-stars Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman, and came out in early 2023.
Emma Roberts
It was revealed in late June 2022 that Emma Roberts has joined the ensemble. It’s the actor’s first big screen franchise project since her stellar turn in 2011’s Scream 4, and in the years since she has found a niche for herself with small screen horror. This started with American Horror Story in 2013 (which she appeared on for multiple seasons in multiple roles), and expanded in 2015 with the series Scream Queens.
Isabela Merced
In June 2022 it was confirmed that Isabela Merced joined Madame Web, according to Deadline. Despite only being in her early 20s, Isabela Merced is the most experienced member of the cast when it comes to starring in franchises. The actor got her big break starring on the series 100 Things To Do Before High School, but her big screen resume includes roles in Transformers: The Last Knight, Sicario: Day Of The Soldado, Dora And The City Of Lost Gold, a voice role in The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature, and the 2022 reboot of Father Of The Bride. She shows a lot of different skills in all of those movies…but we have no idea how any of them might apply here, given that it’s only been rumored that she’ll be playing Anya Corazon, with no official confirmation on that yet.
Tahar Rahim
It was also announced in June 2022 that Tahar Rahim joined the cast, according to Deadline. Between his roles in Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet and Kevin Macdonald’s The Mauritanian, Tahar Rahim has proven that he can deliver a phenomenal performance when given the right material, and we can hope that Madame Web provides it for him in his undisclosed role. Most of the film work that Rahim has done has been in his home country of France, so it will be interesting to see what drew him to make his first American comic book blockbuster.
Adam Scott
Deadline announced in July 2022 was that Adam Scott joined Madame Web. The vast majority of work that Scott has been doing in the last few years has been on the small screen – with shows including Parks and Recreation, The Good Place, Big Little Lies, Ghosted, and, most recently, Severance, but he'll be back in theaters soon, starring in his very first comic book blockbuster.
Zosia Mamet
Also set to make her debut in a big studio comic book movie is Zosia Mamet, who joined the cast of Madame Web in early August 2022. It's definitely a change of pace for the actor, who is best known for her work on shows like Girls and The Flight Attendant. Deadline reported the casting news, but was unable to provide any information about the character that Mamet will be playing.
Mike Epps
Another actor who was added to the cast is Mike Epps, according to Deadline. Like many of the other additions to this list, we don’t know who he will be playing at this moment. Epps is mainly known for his comedic roles in movies such as The Hangover, The Hangover Part III, Open Season 2, and more. He was also in Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Resident Evil: Extinction, and has starred in sitcoms such as The Upshaws and Uncle Buck. In early 2023, he was in You People on Netflix.
This cast already looks to be killer, and I, for one, can’t wait to see them all on the big screen in Madame Web. In the meantime, everyone excited for the project can start counting down the days until its release.
