Having not been deterred by watching one Spider-Man universe that nobody was really asking for go up in smoke a decade ago, Sony has continued plowing ahead with another that’s still trying to convince the world it’s got more going on under the surface than just being the Venom show with some flops thrown in for good measure.
While Tom Hardy’s two outings as the symbiotic antihero have hauled in over $1.3 billion at the box office combined, it would be an understatement to say that Morbius didn’t fare quite as well. Having recently been hit with a hefty delay, the jury remains well and truly out on whether or not the R-rated Kraven the Hunter can give the franchise a shot in the arm, and the same goes for Madame Web.
Calls for the supporting Spider-Man character to be reinvented for the big screen in the form of Dakota Johnson were not what you’d call deafening, but director S.J. Clarkson has assembled a stellar cast for the project, and we can only hope those longstanding rumors of the plot essentially being The Terminator shot through the lens of Marvel Comics turn out to be true.
The fourth installment in the already-creaking mythology is set to hit theaters on Valentine’s Day next year, and word has emerged from MaxBlizz that the first trailer will premiere next week on Monday, Oct. 23 as part of Sony’s presentation at the ShowEast event.
Sony is about due a comic book adaptation that doesn’t split opinion, but will that be Madame Web? Probably not, but there’s only one way to find out.