‘Madame Web’ Director on the Lack of Origin Stories for Spider-Women: “It Would Be Too Greedy”

‘Madame Web’ was released only a few days ago and the movie is not doing all that well at all. The movie currently holds a 13% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 54% score when it comes to audience indicating that the movie is “rotten.” Box office numbers tell a similarly depressing tale, with the movie reportedly earning 6 million on the first day of release.

Now it seems that both the actors and the director are doing damage control, with Dakota Johnson coming out with the statement that the finished movie was drastically different than what she signed on. One of the things that the fans also noticed is a complete lack of origin stories for the Spider-Women, despite all three of them being present in the trailer in full costumes and boasting superpowers. S.J. Clarkson in an interview with ComicBook explained why we never got to see Spider-Women with superpowers (except the dream sequences) and how that might translate to possible future installments of ‘Madame Web.’

Well, I thought it would be a bit greedy to do four origin stories. That’s not really fair, is it? I’ve got to share it. Come on. I mean, first and foremost, it’s Madame Web, right? But I hope the exciting thing about it is, this is a tease. And I think the origin story of the girls, we’re given, hopefully, a hint of the spirit of who they are.

Clarkson later explained that it’s difficult to tell 4 origin stories in a single movie.

But that’s a lot of story to tell, I think, in one [movie]. And I think it wouldn’t do any of them justice to try and sort of crowbar or cram it all into one movie. So I think it’s Madame Web’s, and here’s kind of the development of something else underneath it.

While Clarkson is absolutely 100 % correct that it doesn’t make sense to tell all origin stories within the time limits of a single movie and for it to be executed well, the movie marketing shouldn’t have put so much focus on Spider-Women already having their powers and being in their costumes. The first released images as well as the trailer gave the impression that superpowered Spider-Women would be a much larger part of the movie than they in reality were. It doesn’t make sense to create a trailer around characters that in reality appear in a movie for 40 seconds.

But in the end, Dakota Johnson already stated that she would be willing to return for the ‘Madame Web’ sequel, something that seems unlikely according to the first numbers that the movie is generating, but who knows? We would certainly love to know more about Spider-Women, and ‘Madame Web’ left a lot of unanswered questions. Who knows?

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