Dakota Johnson Insists Madame Web Disaster 'Wasn’t My Fault,' Points to Decisions 'Made by People Who Don't Have a Creative Bone in Their Body'

Madame Web has gone down as one of the most disastrous superhero movies of all time, flopping at the box office amid a flood of negative reviews. Upon release it broke records as the worst opening for a Sony Spider-Man film ever and was the first Marvel film since Fox's Fantastic Four reboot to fail to open at number one.

Even Hideo Kojima, the legendary game director behind Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding, couldn't muster up more than six words in his review. IGN managed a few more, putting the film's failings down to an "overcrowded" script loaded with "extraneous characters, basic archetypes, and generic dialogue."

Since then, and following the even worse Kraven the Hunter, Sony was reported to have given up on its Spider-Man universe to focus on next year’s surefire hit Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

So, what went wrong with Madame Web? There has been much hand-wringing since it came out. Last year, Emma Roberts, who played Mary Parker in the movie, attributed Madame Web's poor box office performance and critical reception to internet culture and "everything being made into a joke." One line of dialogue in the trailer went viral after people poked fun at it, and that line didn't even make it into the final cut of the movie.

Sydney Sweeney, who starred as Julia Cornwall (aka Spider-Woman), admitted she was "along for the ride," but used a Saturday Night Live monologue to emphasize all the other acting roles she is known for and completely disowned her turn as the Spidey superheroine, saying: "You definitely did not see me in Madame Web."

Now, Dakota Johnson, who played the title role, has expanded her thoughts on Madame Web, issuing strong words that get at the significant trouble the movie suffered during its development.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times as part of the promo tour for rom-com Materialists, Johnson said of Madame Web’s failure: “It wasn’t my fault.”

“There’s this thing that happens now where a lot of creative decisions are made by committee," she continued. "Or made by people who don’t have a creative bone in their body. And it’s really hard to make art that way. Or to make something entertaining that way. And I think unfortunately with Madame Web, it started out as something and turned into something else. And I was just sort of along for the ride at that point. But that happens. Bigger-budget movies fail all the time.”