Madame Web Theory Completely Changes Sony"s Spider-Man Universe & Explains Why There"s No Peter Parker

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Summary

The trailer for Madame Web suggests that the movie may serve as a Spider-Man prequel, explaining why Peter Parker is absent in Sony's Spider-Man Universe.
The cast for Madame Web includes prominent roles for characters like Cassandra Web and Julia Carpenter, possibly indicating a connection to Peter Parker's origin story.
Madame Web's apparent villain, Ezekiel Sims, could be trying to stop Peter Parker from being born by hunting down spider-heroes before they gain their powers.

The recently released trailer for Madame Web may have finally explained why Peter Parker has not been present in Sony's Spider-Man Universe according to one particularly convincing theory. Set for release on February 14, 2024, Madame Web will become the first cinematic outing for the eponymous hero whose comic book origins are very much tied to the wider Spider-Man mythos. The trailer, starring Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Web, showcases several spider-people whose powers are very similar to those of Peter Parker - though a non-MCU version of his character is notably absent once again.
Cassandra Web's comic book origins depict her as an elderly supporting character who is blind, paralyzed, and stricken with myasthenia gravis. She is also tied closely to various spider-people, including Mattie Franklin and Julia Carpenter, who both feature in the trailer. Given that her solo movie depicts her as a younger woman, the movie will seemingly take some creative liberties (something that Sony also seems to be doing with an evil Ezekiel Sims) by having her encounter two iterations of Spider-Woman as part of her origin story. It does, however, also help to prop up a theory that convincingly explains Peter Parker's absence, in particular.
Madame Web May Be A Spider-Man Prequel

Sony's Spider-Man Universe Movies
Release Date
Venom
October 5, 2018
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
October 1, 2021
Morbius
April 1, 2022
Madame Web
February 14, 2024
Kraven The Hunter
August 30, 2024
Venom 3
November 8, 2024
Sony's Spider-Man Universe is a somewhat confusing shared cinematic universe that runs alongside the MCU but has yet to depict the titular web-slinger beyond cursory mentions in Morbius and Venom. This is despite the fact that Sony holds the rights to Spider-Man, sharing Tom Holland's iconic MCU iteration with Marvel while keeping their own universe's version conspicuously out of the picture. Rumors surrounding the cast for Madame Web, however, may go some way to explaining exactly why Peter Parker has yet to emerge in Sony's Spider-Man Universe.
The trailer confirms a slew of prominent roles in Madame Web, from Dakota Johnson's Cassandra Web herself to Sydney Sweeney's Julia Carpenter, AKA Spider-Woman. Meanwhile, the characters played by confirmed cast members Adam Scott and Emma Roberts have yet to be officially revealed, though they are widely believed to portray a young Ben Parker and Mary Parker (Peter's mother), respectively. What's more, Roberts has been spotted playing a pregnant character. If this is a young Mary Parker, then there is every reason to believe that she is pregnant with Peter Parker himself, making Madame Web a Spider-Man prequel.
Madame Web's Villain Could Be Trying To Stop Peter Parker From Being Born

The apparent villain of Madame Web takes the form of Ezekiel Sims, who seems to be hunting down the movie's protagonists. This is a far cry from Sims in the comics, who instead acts as a spiritual mentor to Peter Parker during a run that unveils the mystical origins of his powers; specifically their link to "Spider Totems." Taken at face value, it looks as though Sony is blending Sims with the vampiric villain Morlun instead, whose mission is to hunt down spider-totemic avatars and whose preferred mode of attack - draining the lifeforce from his quarry - is suspiciously similar to what Sims appears to be doing in the Madame Web trailer.
Either way, it looks as though Madame Web will involve time jumps as it depicts younger and older Sims, as well as Spider-Woman and Spider-Girl before and after they receive their powers. With this context in mind, it may be the case that a villainous version of Sims has seen the future and aims to kill Spider-heroes before they gain their powers. For Peter Parker, he may be taking the rather grim path of preventing his birth entirely by hunting a pregnant Mary Parker.
Why The Sony Spider-Man Movies Taking Place In the Past Makes Sense Close After three installments of Sony's Spider-Man Universe, the titular hero's absence is becoming ever more conspicuous. By making it the case that he hasn't been born yet, however, Sony offers up a satisfying explanation, making each of its Spider-Man Universe movies prequels of sorts before the web-slinger's anticipated arrival. It might seem that the fact that Spider-Man has been mentioned or recognized in several instances throughout Sony's movies contradicts this idea, but these can also be explained.
Vulture's mention of Spider-Man in the post-credits scene for Morbius is understandable because he came from the MCU and encountered him personally. Venom's response to seeing Spider-Man on television after being pulled to the MCU, meanwhile, could have something to do with the symbiote hive-mind and the possibility that it spans multiple multiverses - something that was at least set in stone when part of the Venom symbiote was left behind in the MCU. As for the scene that depicted an image of Spider-Man in the Morbius trailers, this was eventually omitted from the movie, indicating that Sony might have other plans.
Which Spider-Man Could Sony's Movies Lead Up To?

If Madame Web and preceding movies are, in fact, prequels to an upcoming Spider-Man title in Sony's universe, the question remains of which iteration of Spider-Man will eventually make an appearance. Tom Holland's Spider-Man has already been established to be in an entirely separate universe. Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man, meanwhile, has already encountered a very different version of Venom, which most likely rules him out. This leaves Andrew Garfield's version, whose appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man franchise involved a host of different villains of which Venom, Morbius, and Kraven the Hunter were not a part.
Garfield's Spider-Man would also make sense, given that he was the last Spider-Man depicted in Sony's attempted reboot. Moreover, his excellent reprisal of the role in Spider-Man: No Way Home helped to assuage the sour taste his previous appearance may have left; not that Garfield was to blame in the first place. Whatever the case, it looks as though Madame Web might be the movie to finally feature Peter Parker more prominently than any other Sony Spider-Man Universe movie thus far.
Key Release Dates