‘Euphoria’ star Sydney Sweeney joins Dakota Johnson in ‘Madame Web’ – report
Euphoria actress Sydney Sweeney is reportedly joining Sony Pictures’ upcoming Marvel film, Madame Web.
As per Deadline, sources said that the 24-year-old actress, who rose to fame for her breakout role in HBO’s hit teen drama series, has joined Fifty Shades trilogy actress Dakota Johnson in the S.J. Clarkson-helmed film with screenplay coming from Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless.
Aside from Euphoria, which became HBO's most watched series behind Game of Thrones, the rising star is also known for her roles in Netflix's Everything Sucks, HBO’s The White Lotus, Amazon’s thriller film The Voyeurs, Nocturne, and Big Time Adolescence.
“Sources say Sweeney had been weighing several offers in recent weeks, but the opportunity to join Johnson in what would be the first female-centric film in this universe was too good to pass up,” the report said.
Other details about the upcoming film are still unknown, including Sweeney’s character.
First appeared in Marvel Comics’ The Amazing Spider-Man #210 in 1980, Madame Web, also known as Cassandra Webb, is an elderly woman with myasthenia gravis.
Although she is connected to a life support system that looks like a spider web, the heroine, created by writer Denny O'Neil and artist John Romita Jr., is a telepathic, clairvoyant and precognitive mutant.
In the comics, Madame Web died after Sasha Kravinoff slit her throat. However, moments before she died, she revealed that she is no longer blind and passed on her psychic powers to Julia Carpenter, the second Spider-Woman.
Deadline’s sources previously said that it’s likely that the project could “turn into something else” since Madame Web never actively fought any villains due to her age and medical condition.
“Insiders say due to her psychic sensory powers, she is essentially Sony’s version of Doctor Strange,” it said.
The media outfit noted that it’s been a priority for Sony to get a female-driven property in its Marvel characters “given the long list of strong female characters that appear in these comics throughout the years.”
It added that executives from the company for the past two months have met with A-listers to find the right actress to play the role, with Johnson ultimately “gaining front-runner status right before the holiday.”
The news of a brand new movie featuring one of Sony's Marvel characters came on the heels of the worldwide success of Spider-Man: No Way Home and Tom Hardy’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
Additionally, further expanding Sony's Spiderverse this year is Jared Leto’s antihero film Morbius while Aaron Taylor-Johnson's standalone movie Kraven the Hunter is due to come out sometime in 2023.