Which Spider-Man Is the Perfect Match for Madame Web?

Madame Web will expand Sony’s Spider-Verse (Spider-Man universe) when it hits theatres on February 14^, but there is still a big lingering question as to which big-screen Web-Head works best with Dakota Johnson’s heroine. Madame Web focuses upon the origin story of paramedic Cassandra Web, who gains unexpected powers of telepathy and clairvoyance to become the superheroine Madame Web. While Madame Web is being presented as a standalone superhero movie, the character is closely connected to Spider-Man, with Madame Web often even acting as a mentor of sorts to Peter Parker. Madame Webb is also known as a multiversal being capable of connecting to the Spider-People of any universe. Between that and Sony producing a slew of Spider-Man adjacent projects like Morbius, Kraven the Hunter, and the Venom movies, the big question for Madame Web is not just whether a Spider-Man will appear on-screen, but which one will.

Funnily enough, rumours suggest that Sony Pictures themselves might be taking a non-committal approach to answer that question, at least for the time being. Per journalist Jeff Sneider, a recent rumour suggests that Madame Web was intended to take place in the universe of Andrew Garfield’s Amazing Spider-Man films, albeit without Garfield’s Peter Parker actually appearing (via CBR.) Sony subsequently may have had some second thoughts on this approach, instead electing to link Dakota Johnson’s Madame Web to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Ultimately, which Spidey Madame Web decides to associate with remains to be seen until the movie is released, but with three big-screen Peter Parkers in Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland along with Shamiek Moore’s Miles Morales of Sony’s Spider-Verse films, the question of which Wall-Crawler is the best to first establish alongside Dakota Johnson’s Madame Web is a pertinent one. And there is reason to think that the alleged initial approach with Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker might be the best one.

While the Web-Slinging triumvirate of Maguire, Garfield, and Holland made 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home a monumental worldwide phenomenon to the tune of $1.9 billion, Garfield’s “Peter #3” in particular experienced a true redemption story in more ways than one. Following the seemingly unceremonious end of Garfield’s Spidey tenure after 2014’s polarizing The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Garfield’s return was as rapturously received as Maguire’s in No Way Home, especially with Garfield’s Peter still dealing with the guilt of failing to save Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). This led right into one of No Way Home’s biggest cheer moments when Peter #3 rescues M.J. (Zedaya) from falling to her death in the movie’s climactic battle, Peter #3 even shedding tears that he was able to save M.J. after losing Gwen.

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These crowd-pleasing moments and the overall reception to No Way Home sparked massive renewed interest in reviving Maguire and Garfield’s respective Spider-Man film series, with #MakeASM3 becoming a major social media trend. The renewed love for Garfield’s Spider-Man after No Way Home, coupled with his powerful arc of heroic redemption, arguably makes his Spidey the perfect one to be the first to cross paths with Dakota Johnson’s Madame Web.

To be sure, the initial plan for Madame Web indicates that Andrew Garfield himself would not appear, but that in itself might have been a flawed approach. With Garfield’s Peter #3 becoming more popular than ever post-No Way Home, the genuine mainstream hunger for his continued adventures could have made him especially qualified to boost Madame Web in a commercial sense.

Moreover, even just a Spider-Man cameo in Madame Web could have been a clever pay-off to him seeing himself as “lame” compared to Maguire and Holland’s Spideys, due to the more spectacular pedigree of villains they’ve fought, with Peter #3 finally meeting a genuine supernatural entity in Madame Web. Most of all, after Peter #3’s rescue of M.J. in No Way Home, Johnson’s Madame Web could theoretically have a particular interest in guiding him further, in order to pull Peter #3 back from ever falling back into the kind of depression where “I stopped pulling my punches.”

One way or another, Sony needs a Wall-Crawler to swing into the universe of Madame Web and the studio’s Spider-Man villains sooner or later, and the narrative and commercial evidence continues to point to Andrew Garfield’s Peter #3 as the right Spider-Man for the job.

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What do you think? Would you like to see Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man in Madame Web?

Madame Web will arrive in cinemas on February 16, 2024.