Count Dakota Johnson out of any future superhero movie discourse. After Madame Web became Sony’s latest Spider-verse flop, the movie got ripped apart by the internet despite a rising cult of fans calling the messy film camp. Most recently on Saturday Night Live, Johnson’s co-star Sydney Sweeney joked you probably “didn’t see” her in the film—and as for Johnson herself, her sardonic press tour interviews said a lot in between her finely minced words.
A new interview with Bustle finds that Johnson may never return to the role … or even the whole superhero genre. “Unfortunately, I’m not surprised that this has gone down the way it has,” she shared, referring to the film’s reception. “It’s so hard to get movies made, and in these big movies that get made—and it’s even starting to happen with the little ones, which is what’s really freaking me out—decisions are being made by committees, and art does not do well when it’s made by committee. Films are made by a filmmaker and a team of artists around them. You cannot make art based on numbers and algorithms. My feeling has been for a long time that audiences are extremely smart, and executives have started to believe that they’re not. Audiences will always be able to sniff out bullshit. Even if films start to be made with AI, humans aren’t going to fucking want to see those.”
Johnson continued to explain her hesitancy to trust an experience like Madame Web again. “I had never done anything like it before. I probably will never do anything like it again because I don’t make sense in that world. And I know that now. But sometimes in this industry, you sign on to something, and it’s one thing and then as you’re making it, it becomes a completely different thing, and you’re like, Wait, what? But it was a real learning experience, and of course it’s not nice to be a part of something that’s ripped to shreds, but I can’t say that I don’t understand.”
Johnson does have a point when it comes to how these movies are made and shaped by executives; just look at the challenges Marvel Studios is facing in the wake of its highly successful Phase 4—and what feels like fading audience interest as it moves into Phase 5. While we’re a bit bummed that Johnson’s reluctant to return to the superhero realm, consider Madame Web’s potential future as a cult movie. She and Sweeney might be distancing themselves from it now, but one day maybe there’ll be enough fan demand to lure them back to the franchise… or at least give this one a reappraisal.
Madame Web is in theaters now.
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