Sony Pictures
Matching the energy of the film itself, the promotional tour for the upcoming Sony Spider-Man Universe film Madame Web has been quite bizarre.
As one Twitter user succinctly put it, “I have never seen a more defeated press tour than MADAME WEB — everyone looks like they’re pre-emptively apologizing.”
Even Dakota Johnson, the lead star of the film, is making vaguely disparaging comments about the project, as she joked during her opening monologue that Madame Web is “like if AI created your boyfriend’s favorite movie.”
Johnson made similar comments in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, saying that while filming the movie she had no idea if “this is going to be good at all.”
“I’ve never really done a movie where you are on a blue screen, and there’s fake explosions going off, and someone’s going, ‘Explosion!’ and you act like there’s an explosion. That to me was absolutely psychotic. I was like, ‘I don’t know if this is going to be good at all! I hope that I did an OK job!’” Johnson said.
What’s happening with Madame Web is quite reminiscent of the phenomenon that surrounded Sony’s previous Spider-Man spinoff film Morbius, which was widely mocked upon its release in the spring of 2022.
In an effort to promote the film, Johnson — who previously starred in the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy — recently hosted Saturday Night Live and took part in a hilarious sketch with the Please Don’t Destroy guys.
Alongside Johnson, Madame Web, which is tracking to make ~$25 million during its debut weekend after releasing on February 14, also stars Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, Emma Roberts, Celeste O’Connor, Adam Scott, Tahar Rahim, Zosia Mamet, Mike Epps, and more.
You can check out the official trailer for Madame Web — which spawned the instantaneous “He was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died” memes — below.