As one of the internet’s favourite celebrities, Dakota Johnson likely has her pick of which blockbuster movie multiverse she wants
to appear in. And it looks like The Lost Daughter star has settled on Sony’s ever-expanding Spider-Verse as its first live
action female superhero. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Johnson is in talks to star as the mysterious Madame Web in an all-new solo movie, directed by SJ Carlson and written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, who also scripted Jared Leto’s perpetually-delayed Spider-Verse picture, Morbius.
But there’s a wrinkle to this particular web. Originally introduced in a 1980 issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, Madame Web is canonically blind and classically depicted as an elderly paralysed woman who relies on her psychic abilities – which stem from a neurological condition known as myasthenia gravis – to engage with the world. (A younger version of Madame Web was introduced in 2010, but that iteration is also blind) During her four decade Marvel Comics history, Madame Web has assisted Spider-Man in his various adventures, and has also mentored several of the female heroes who have assumed the identity of Spider-Woman.
Sony’s move to cast Johnson in the role of a disabled hero runs counter to Marvel Studio’s own recent attempts to diversify the Marvel Cinematic Universe by casting two deaf performers as deaf characters.
Last November, Chloe Zhao’s Eternals featured the first deaf hero in a Marvel movie, Makkari, played by Lauren Ridloff. And the recent Disney+ series, Hawkeye introduced Alaqua Cox as Echo, a deaf vigilante who will be headlining her own spinoff series later this year.
