The Madame Web trailer has certainly set tongues wagging across the internet — and not all of it is positive.
Yesterday, Sony Pictures Entertainment released the debut trailer for the upcoming superhero movie, due to hit theaters February 16, 2024.
Madame Web is connected to the Spider-Man cinematic universe, although it's described as a "standalone origin story". In the Marvel comics, Madame Web, real name Cassandra Webb, is an elderly mutant with clairvoyant powers who has been associated with various Spider-Women. But the movie is set before Madame Web is in the wheelchair she is famous for using in the comics.
In the trailer we see Dakota Johnson as Madame Web, Sydney Sweeney as Julia Carpenter/Spider-Woman, and Tahar Rahim as the Spider-Man-like villain, Ezekiel "Zeke" Sims. We also get a glimpse of two other Spider-Heroes who join forces with Madame Web and Spider-Women to defeat Ezekiel.
But it’s one line in particular that the internet is having a right old laugh about, read by Madame Web as she describes the untimely death of her mother and Ezekiel’s potential role in it. Here’s the line in question: "He was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died."
It didn’t take long after the trailer went live for people to jump on this emerging meme, with plenty of jokes about mums going to the Amazon to research spiders. Here’s a snippet:
he was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died pic.twitter.com/C77Zg1L0Ua
— the morally corrupt slut pig (@andfkthat) November 15, 2023
*trump voice*
— Peter Twinklage (@PeterTwinklage) November 15, 2023
many people are saying he was in the Amazon, the jungle not the company, he was with my mom when she, frankly, was researching spiders, NOT BUGS, can you believe it? they're not bugs. arachnids. what a word. but she died. she was with spiders right before she died.
He was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died pic.twitter.com/DA8oEDIvRV
— eric eidelstein (@ericeidelstein) November 15, 2023
he was in the amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died
— the mat who jonesed the world (@pillowfort) November 16, 2023
she was a girl
can i make it any more obvious?
You're laughing. He was in the Amazon with her mom when she was researching spiders right before she died, and you're laughing pic.twitter.com/pYq9seDUld
— Gerry McBride (@GerryMcBride) November 15, 2023
He was in the Amazon researching spiders with my mom before she died? pic.twitter.com/g3lAsLU8nU
— ege e.a. (@egeofanatolia) November 15, 2023
he was in the amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died pic.twitter.com/1ku5ofCP2N
— Ryan | Support physical media (@itsRyanUnicomb) November 16, 2023
Ethan, he was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died pic.twitter.com/n4pvN7iavU
— Lon Harris (@Lons) November 16, 2023
‘Forget it, Jake. He was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died.’ pic.twitter.com/abtNZ85S4K
— Tom Reagan’s Hat (@RufusTSuperfly) November 15, 2023
Cells. Interlinked. He was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died. pic.twitter.com/3GDUsAn7lf
— david zaslav haters club (@dauntlessdalton) November 16, 2023
Elsewhere, some have made an unflattering comparison between the Madame Web trailer and a cancelled CW pilot.
Madame Web, only on the CW 8/7c pic.twitter.com/RBKTIMHkfj
— Ash (Etsy Shop OPEN)?️ (@FleurashDesign) November 15, 2023
Madame Web has dropped its first trailer. Let's be real it looks like a cheap CW show crossed with final destination film. It genuinely looks awful. Usually I'm optimistic about Marvel themed films but look at it ? pic.twitter.com/NM0l6NrDU3
— Saammuel (@Saammuel) November 15, 2023
Why does Ezekiel Sims look like the main villain in the 10th season of CW series "The Flash"? #MadameWeb #TheFlash #TheCW #Arrowverse pic.twitter.com/7efeoX3XFp
— Kamil Matuszak (@pandorktv) November 15, 2023
While it’s clear Madame Web doesn’t have the same sort of budget reserved for a mainline Marvel or DC movie, it is part of a growing list of Sony-produced Spider-Man spinoffs that look set to fill the gaping hole left by the MCU and DCU’s sparse 2024 release schedule.
We’ve got Madame Web in February, then Aaron Taylor-Johnson is set to star in Kraven the Hunter in August 2024. Tom Hardy will reprise his role as Venom in the third film in the series, due out November 2024. There's also El Muerto and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse coming up at some point. Morbius, starring Jared Leto as the titular vampire anti-hero, came out last year.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
