Fans Upset At Dakota Johnson For Taking Role Of A Disabled Person

Dakota Johnson has apparently been cast for a role in a Spider-Man movie. Some of the franchise fans are having trouble accepting this news as they throw a bunch of complaints regarding her playing the character.

Recently, the Hollywood Reporter announced that the actor was negotiating with Sony to play the 80s comic book character in a movie adaption. Dakota then seemingly confirmed the news when she posted a pretty cryptic Instagram story. simply showed a black background and a spider’s web emoji.

Fans were quick to come to the onslaught as they raved about her choosing the role of Madame Web. Madame Web is blind and relies on a web-like machine to keep her alive. The news that Dakota, an able-bodied actor, may take on the role left many Spider-Man fans frustrated.

“Hell naw, disabled actresses exist! Madame Web is a canonically blind character with myasthenia gravis, disabled mimicry is so annoying”, said one viewer on Twitter. “Not to mention the fact that Madame Web is blind and this takes away a blind actor’s role in these films too”, tweeted a second viewer. A third chimed in with “No love for old actresses anymore.”

Madame Web suffers from a neuromuscular condition called Myasthenia gravis. It is a rare long-term condition that causes muscle weakness. It most commonly affects the muscles that control the eyes and eyelids, facial expressions, chewing, swallowing, and speaking.

This isn’t the first time Marvel has faced criticism for its casting. Back in 2015, Marvel was hit with similar backlash after Charlie Cox was cast as Matt Murdock, a blind superhero, in Daredevil. Casting at Marvel has progressed in recent years, with deaf actors Lauren Ridloff and Alaqua Cox playing roles in major Marvel movies.

Dakota Johnson’s casting must be great news for quite a bunch of fans but it doesn’t excuse the fact that a large spectrum of people is not taking this well. We are yet to see Marvel clarify this situation as of now but we’ll keep looking for more on this story.

This might seem like another instance of 2022 getting angry at anything, because it might be. On that note, let’s all get mad at Ben Affleck for taking the role of a blind man when he played Daredevil, as if we didn’t have enough reasons to be upset at that adaptation already.

What are your thoughts on the story? Let us know in the comments.