Sony Pictures already had a spotty track record with its Marvel movie, so fans approached Madame Web with low expectations. When the movie debuted with 12% on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed only $100.3 million at the worldwide box office, it shocked no one.
However, while Madame Web was a colossal box office flop, it was also one of Netflix's biggest hits in 2024 and Sony's biggest title on the streaming platform overall. Even now, it's just arrived on Netflix in the UK and has quickly cracked the streamer's Top 10.
Despite that, there will be no Madame Web sequel, meaning we've seen the last of those characters. Perhaps the movie's biggest crime was introducing—and largely wasting—Ezekiel Sims. In the Amazing Spider-Man comics, he serves as Peter Parker's mentor and, after betraying the wall-crawler, is revealed to have acquired his spider powers through mystical means.
His arc, from the creative team of J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita Jr., was fascinating and opened the door to exploring a new side of Spider-Man's powers (setting the stage for future storylines like Spider-Verse and Spider-Geddon, in the process).
Talking to Variety about his role as Javert in a new take on Les Misérables directed by Fred Cavayé, actor Tahar Rahim broke his silence on playing Madame Web's big bad as Ezekiel.
"I’ve heard about all that," he said of the online backlash and memes. "I didn’t look them up because I knew it wouldn’t be a good idea. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I just did my job!"
Rahim did the best with the material he was given, but with many of his lines dubbed over for some reason, his performance often became the subject of those memes. We spoke with Rahim last year, and he talked in detail about his approach to Ezekiel.
"As a supervillain as well, but also as a human being. I couldn’t just be an out-and-out baddie," he explained. "I had to find some connections, and I thought of his fight for survival. That’s human. You can think about it and question yourself, wondering, ‘What would I do if my life was in danger?'"
"I wouldn’t chase teenagers, but he doesn’t see them as teenagers. They’re threats. They want to stop my life. What can I do to prevent it?" Rahim continued. "I read and looked at every comic book where Ezekiel Sims appears for the body language and to understand him. I discovered that he’s barefoot, which I think is so cool."
It's hard not to feel for most of the actors who got caught up in Madame Web's...web...but they've mostly moved on from the project with minimal damage to their careers.
You can watch our interview with Rahim on Madame Web in the player below.