Warning: This post contains SPOILERS for Madame Web

Summary

• Sony's Madame Web expands the Spider-Man Universe with a star-studded cast, including Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney.
• Dakota Johnson's portrayal of Cassandra Webb offers a younger, more action-oriented version of the character.
• The addition of characters like Julia Carpenter and Mattie Franklin, establishes multiple versions of Spider-Woman in Sony's Spider-Man lore, as well as introducing other major Spider-Man characters.

Sony's Spider-Man Universe expands with the Marvel icon Spider-Man - or at least not in a prominent onscreen role - Madame Web's protagonist and her ties to the Marvel hero suggest the movie's plot can affect all wall-crawlers across the multiverse.

In Marvel Comics, Cassandra Webb a.k.a. Madame Web is a psychic mutant who can see the future and thus peek into all possible futures and alternate realities thanks to her connection to the Web of Life and Destiny. She has mentored not only Peter Parker, but also other spider-heroes such as the Spider-Women Julia Carpenter and Jessica Drew. As a more ethereal Marvel character, Madame Web's abilities could help link Sony's Spider-Man Universe with the MCU, if Madame Web 2 and other sequels happen, but for now, it's best to focus on all of the Marvel characters introduced in the first movie.

Dakota Johnson As Cassandra "Cassie" Webb/Madame Web

The main character in Sony's Madame Web, Cassandra Webb, is played by Dakota Johnson, best known for her role as Anastasia Steele in the Fifty Shades of Grey movie and its sequels. Johnson has also appeared in other films such as The Social Network, How to Be Single, and Bad Times at the El Royale, where she portrayed Amy Ritter, Alice Kepley, and Emily Summerspring, respectively. Dakota Johnson, whose parents are Hollywood stars Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, also starred in the series Ben and Kate as Kate Fox.

In Madame Web, Dakota Johnson plays a younger version of the titular Marvel character, who works as a paramedic. She was adopted as a child after the death of her mother in childbirth. While Cassandra Webb is usually depicted as an elderly blind woman with partial paralysis in the source material, some appearances feature her as a younger woman and cure her neurological condition. This change in Sony's growing Spider-Man Universe allows Madame Web's main character to have a more action-oriented role than her comic book counterpart.

Sydney Sweeney As Julia Carpenter/ Spider-Woman

Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney co-stars in Madame Web alongside Dakota Johnson's Cassandra Webb. Sydney Sweeney is portraying Julia Carpenter, the second Spider-Woman in Marvel Comics. Sydney Sweeney rose to fame playing Cassie Howard in HBO's Euphoria, but she has also appeared in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood as Snake, in Night Teeth as Eva, and The White Lotus as Olivia Mossbacher. Sydney Sweeney starred as Pippa in The Voyeurs and played Eden Spencer in The Handmaid's Tale, as well as Alice in Sharp Objects.

Though it doesn't happen in Madame Web, Julia Carpenter gained spider-like abilities after the original Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew. After some time as the second Spider-Woman and the hero Arachne, Julia Carpenter received Madame Web's powers in the latter's dying moments, after which Julia became the new Madame Web. As Madame Web, Julia Carpenter eventually founded the Order of the Web, a team of spider-people made up of Miles Morales, Cindy Moon a.k.a. Silk, Gwen Stacy, Jessica Drew, and Anya Corazón a.k.a. Araña.

Celeste O'Connor As Mattie Franklin/Spider-Woman

Celeste O'Connor is a rising star who appears in Madame Web as Mattie Franklin, who is also Spider-Woman in the comics. O'Connor made their feature film debut in the 2017 thriller Wetlands, played Nyla in 2020's Freaky, and appeared in Ghostbusters: Afterlife as Lucky Domingo, a role they're expected to reprise before Madame Web. Mattie Franklin appearing in Madame Web is exciting in its own right, but also in of establishing that more than one version of Spider-Woman exists in the Sony lore, and in of Franklin's comic origins tying the character to other major Spider-Man figures like Jessica Drew, J. Jonah Jameson, and Norman Osborn.

In Madame Web, Mattie is the most headstrong of Cassie's young charges, revealing that she too lives alone with her parents living in Japan and leaving her to fend for herself. She has an attitude and a problem with authority, matching the energy of her skateboard.

Isabela Merced As Anya Corazón/Araña/Spider-Girl

Isabela Merced is another popular actor ing the Madame Web roster, having been cast as Anya Corazón, who goes by the names Spider-Girl and Araña in Marvel Comics. Her father was deported before the events of Madame Web, and her mother is revealed to have died. Like all of Madame Web's Spider-Women, Anya doesn't gain her powers until sometime after the events of the movie. After her voice roles in the Nickelodeon shows 100 Things to Do Before High School and Dora and Friends: Into the City!, Isabela Merced rose to prominence with Transformers: The Last Knight, where she starred as Isabela alongside Mark Wahlberg. She then appeared in Sicario: Day of the Soldado and Instant Family before starring in Dora and the Lost City of Gold and Sweet Girl.

Madame Web marks Araña's second movie adaptation in recent history, after first being added into the Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse cast in a minor role.

Tahar Rahim As Ezekiel Sim

Tahar Rahim's role in Madame Web is Ezekiel Sims, who in the comics is a living Spider-Totem with similar powers to Spider-Man. The Spider-Totems storyline itself is not adapted in the final movie, with Sims instead imagined as a more straightforward villain who stole a mystical spider from Las Arañas (the Spider People of Peru), who is cursed by visions of his own death. He stalks Mattie, Anya and Julia after his vision reveals their identities as his killers, 10 years after Madame Web's ending. He wears his own black and red Spider-suit and boasts superhuman strength, aglity, and the ability to climb walls and ceilings. Quite why he owns a super-suit is never actually established.

Rahim is best known for his role as Malik El Djebena in the film A Prophet, after which he appeared in 2018's Mary Magdalene as Judas and Mohamedou Ould Salahi in The Mauritanian. He has also played Ali Soufan in The Looming Tower and Charles Sobhraj in The Serpent. Apart from Madame Web, Tahar Rahim also appeared in Ridley Scott's Napoleon.

Adam Scott As Ben Parker

Adam Scott makes his Marvel debut in Madame Web as a young Uncle Ben in 2003. He is not only Cassie Webb's paramedic partner, but also the closest thing she seems to have to real family. There is also the faintest hint of sexual tension between the two, as Ben tells her that he's met someone (the easy assumption being it's his future wife May). Ben is the very definition of a good guy, who saves Cassie's life early on and unquestioning, helps her protect the young Spider-Women-to-be in his sister-in-law's house.

Known for playing Ben Wyatt in the sitcom Parks and Recreation and starring as Mark in the sci-fi thriller Severance, Adam Scott has also appeared in the shows Big Little Lies and The Good Place, as well as several movies such as The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Hot Tub Time Machine 2.

Emma Roberts As Mary Parker (Peter's Mother)

Emma Roberts ed the star-studded cast of Madame Web as Mary Parker, sister-in-law to Ben, and mother of one Peter Parker. She is heavily pregnant with Peter throughout the movie, and at the end gives birth to her conspicuously unnamed baby. The name gimmick is used as a gag in a baby shower sequence, as she asks her guests to guess the infant's name.

Roberts is known for her various roles in American Horror Story, as well as for playing Casey Mathis in We're The Millers and Jill Roberts in Scream 4. Born to a family of artists, Emma Roberts' breakout role was Addie Singer in the Nickelodeon sitcom Unfabulous. One of the characters Emma Roberts could be playing in Madame Web could be Charlotte Witter, Madame Web's granddaughter, who steals the clairvoyant's powers and de-ages her in the process - although theories have also risen that she could be Mary Parker, Peter Parker's mother.

Embeth Davidtz played Mary Parker in flashback sequences in both The Amazing Spider-Man movies.

Kerry Bishé As Constance Webb

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels and Halt & Catch Fire star Kerry Bishé appears in the 1973 flashback sequences in Madame Web as Constance Webb, the mother of Cassandra. She is a researcher, who follows the trail of magical spiders to Peru's Amazonian rainforest, where she unfortunately dies in childbirth after Ezekiel Sim (her security) betrays her to steal the spider. Constance braves the rainforest despite being heavily pregnant to extract the spiders' healing powers to combat her unborn daughter's degenerative muscular disease. As she dies, her daughter is given powers by the Spider People, but Constance is unsavable.

José María Yazpik As Santiago

José María Yazpik appears as the apparent leader of the mysterious Amazonian Spider People, who live in the Peruvian forests and proetect the sacred, superpowered spiders that give Cassie her powers as an infant. He and his fellow Spider People find Constance after she's shot by Ezekiel Sim, taking her to a sacred cave with a pool, in which he allows a spider to bite her. She dies, but Cassie is gifted powers and is cured of her congenital condition. He later reunites with Cassie when she returns to Peru looking for answers about her past, acting as a sort of short-lived mentor.

Zosia Mamet As Amaria

Zosia Mamet appears in Madame Web as Ezekiel Sim's tech Amaria, who oversees his hacking of the NSA's network of cameras, helping him to identify Anya, Mattie and Julia from his visions. She's a fairly minor character who appears to only be loyal to him because he pays her.

She is known for her performances as Courtney in United States of Tara, Joyce Ramsay in Mad Men, and Kelsey in Parenthood. She has lent her voice for animated shows such as Regular Show and Star vs. the Forces of Evil, and starred as Shoshanna Shapiro in Girls, as well as Annie Mouradian in The Flight Attendant. Besides Madame Web, Zosia Mamet is set to appear in the Daria spinoff Jodie.

Mike Epps As O'Neil

Stand-up comedian Mike Epps also appears in Madame Web in the ing role of tragic paramedic chief. His death is the catalyst for Cassie to explore her powers more as she feels helpless at having foreseen the accident that kills him without being able to stop it. He appears in one sequence in Madame Web prominently, and his death causes her great - but surprisingly temporary - trauma.

Epps has appeared in numerous films, including the Friday sequels Next Friday and Friday After Next, as well as in The Hangover, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and Resident Evil: Extinction. He has also had recurring roles in TV shows such as Survivor's Remorse and Uncle Buck.