Madame Web was another critical and commercial Marvel disaster for Sony Pictures, a shame seeing as the studio assembled an impressive cast for "Cassie" Webb's origin story.
Among them was American Horror Story standout Emma Roberts; for some reason, she barely factored into the Madame Web's marketing campaign abd was largely a non-factor in the movie despite playing Mary Parker, the mother of Peter Parker.
She gave birth to the future Spider-Man before the credits rolled - without ever naming him - though it's still not clear whether that was supposed to have any significance to the Spider-Verse's future or meant as a random Easter Egg (you may recall that, once upon a time, there were rumours of the birth having Multiversal consequences).
"I loved getting to just pop in and play Peter Parker's mom, and I loved the director of that movie. I had so much fun," Roberts told ComicBook.com in a recent interview. "I think that playing comic book characters is so fun, I would love to get the chance to play one that maybe gets a little more action."
"I would also love to get to play a witch again," she added. "I've seen some witch comic book characters that I would be into."
As noted, Roberts didn't get a huge amount to do as Mary Parker but is still proud to have portrayed such an important character in the wider Spider-Man mythos. "I birthed Peter Parker. Excuse me, what is more heroic than that?" she joked.
"I just got to wear a nine-month pregnant belly. Again, that is heroic. You don't even know what that's like. And then I had to do it on American Horror Story for another six months of my life wearing a belly. I should have three kids by now, and I only have one with the amount of times I've had to be pregnant."
Shortly before being released, Madame Web was billed as a "standalone" movie, likely because Sony was aware it had a bad movie on its hands. However, had it been a success, there's likely a chance Mary and the young Peter would have been a big part of future stories.
Those flashforwards suggested the idea was to set possible sequels in the present day, with the three Spider-Women suited up and Madame Web serving as their mentor. From there, a team-up with Spider-Man was surely inevitable (blissfully, we'll never know).
Madame Web is now streaming on Netflix.