After the Venom movies and Morbius, it's easy to understand why most fans didn't have high hopes for Madame Web. So, it wasn't a huge surprise when the film debuted with 12% on Rotten Tomatoes and earned only $100.3 million at the worldwide box office by the time its run ended.
Despite boasting an impressive cast and a director with superhero experience in SJ Clarkson (Jessica Jones, The Defenders), little to nothing about Madame Web worked. Now, it's destined to be remembered as one of the worst superhero movies ever made.
The cast was a highlight, though, with Severance star Adam Scott proving himself a worthy choice to play Ben Parker, the future uncle of the Amazing Spider-Man.
The actor didn't have much to work with but delivered a much better performance than lead stars Dakota Johnson and Tahar Rahim. That meant he walked away from the movie largely unscathed (the same definitely couldn't be said for some of his co-stars).
ComicBook.com recently caught up with Scott and asked if he'd be down to play another comic book character. "I don’t know. Never say never," he responded. "I’m not sure. I think that it’s a genre that I, certainly, as an audience member, participate in. I like seeing all those movies, I watch them all."
Yeah, it sounds a lot like Madame Web has well and truly scared him off the genre. That's a shame because, last year, Scott talked about his love of comic books growing up.
"I was really into comics as a kid. I actually grew up in Santa Cruz, California, where they shot Lost Boys. And the comic book store in [1987’s The Lost Boys] was the comic book store that I would go to just about every day to get all my latest comic books," he revealed. "And my next door neighbor owned it, Joe Ferrara, and so I would go in there every day, and he would have the latest comics that I was interested in."
Severance season 2 premiers on Apple TV+ this Friday, January 17.
Meanwhile, in another universe...In a switch from the typical genre, Madame Web tells the standalone origin story of one of Marvel publishing's most enigmatic heroines.
The suspense-driven thriller stars Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, a paramedic in Manhattan who may have clairvoyant abilities. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she forges a relationship with three young women destined for powerful futures...if they can all survive a deadly present.
The movie stars Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O’Connor, Isabela Merced, Tahar Rahim, Mike Epps, Emma Roberts, and Adam Scott.
As well as streaming on Netflix, Madame Web is also available on Digital, 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD.