Talk about an untapped market! Marvel has presented a major black superhero (Black Panther), and Marvel and DC both have a major female hero (Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel). Marvel plans to introduce a couple of gay superheroes. But, there is still a major untapped market when it comes to comic book movies– the geriatric audience. But Sony is correcting that.
Who needs Iron Man, Captain America, or Thor? Sony very publicly broke ties with Marvel Studios/Disney in August, choosing to use the character to build its own shared universe of movies, which kind of began with last year’s hit ‘Venom’. Sony holds the rights to all Spider-Man-related characters, and even back when Andrew Garfield was still in the lead role, had plans to craft its own universe based around the Wall-Crawler, with ‘Venom’, ‘Sinister Six’, and either ‘Silver Sable’ or ‘Black Cat’ (or both).
But forget those nimble heroes, villains, and anti-heroes. Now that’s it’s free of Disney’s meddling, Sony is already prepping Venom 2‘, and ‘Morbius‘ has wrapped. The ‘Silver and Black’ movie to feature Black Cat and Silver Sable was sent back to the drawing board. Instead, for a follow-up, Sony plans to feature another Spider-Man supporting character– Madame Web. Yep, a 100-year-old blind woman is Sony’s next major action hero.
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Sony must be mighty impressed with ‘Morbius’, as they have tapped that film’s writers, Matt Sazama, and Burk Sharpless, to pen the screenplay. Nothing else is known about this project– even who will produce it. Sony executive Palak Patel will oversee, but declined to comment upon the announcement.
Madame Web– real name Cassandra Webb– first appeared in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ #210 in 1980 and was co-created by writer Denny O’Neil and artist John Romita Jr. She is precognitive and her powers are explained by the fact that she is a mutant. (Good luck, Sony!)
Outside of the comic books, Madame Web appeared in the ’90s ‘Spider-Man’ animated series and has popped up in video games. Generally, she is depicted as an oracle, guiding Peter Parker on his journey.
Because of her appearance on the ‘Spider-Man’ cartoon, she was made into an action figure by Toy Biz, although “action” might be too strong a word for this character.
Sony will probably turn this character into a twentysomething with emerging psychic abilities. But if not, who should play Madame Web? Here are my “fan castings”:
Dame Judi Dench
Dame Maggie Smith
Dame Diana Rigg
Or if you insist on an American, the last Golden Girl standing, Betty White.
Take your pick! There will be no screenings after 5 PM. Who do you want to see in star in a ‘Spider-Man’ movie you never wanted to see in a million years?
Source: Collider
