Who is the baby in Madame Web?

In the 2024 comic book movie, Madame Web, Dakota Johnson takes on the lead role of Cassandra ‘Cassie’ Webb – a New York paramedic with clairvoyant abilities. During the course of the film, Cassie starts to learn all about her newfound powers, and puts them to good use protecting a trio of teenagers who will one day grow up to become heroic ‘spider-women’.

This is the general premise of the movie, and becomes a key focus of the story. Cassie works hard to keep the teens safe from chief villain, Ezekiel Sims, who has plans to kill all three girls.

Directed by S. J. Clarkson, Madame Web is an entry in Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man Universe – a Spider-Man adjacent movie series which includes films such as Venom and Morbius. The movie doesn’t include Spider-Man, although it does make a few references to the wider Spidey universe.

One of these references is Ben Parker and his sister, Mary. In the movie, Ben is a paramedic who works with Cassie, while his sister, Mary, is heavily pregnant and gets caught up in Cassie’s attempts to protect the trio of teenagers.

During the course of the movie, Mary holds a baby shower where she asks her guests to guess the name of her forthcoming baby. A couple of incorrect guesses are offered up, but Mary doesn’t reveal the name of the child.

In fact, throughout the movie, Mary doesn’t mention the name of her baby at all – not even after she has given birth. However, the movie seems to hint the baby is important, leaving some to question who the baby is in Madame Web?

And this is a good question, as the baby *is* important. His name may not be revealed in the film, but he is a key player in the Spider-Man universe.

So, who is he? Who is the baby in Madame Web?

Mary’s baby in Madame Web is Peter Parker. The same Peter Parker who will grow up to become Spider-Man.

Mary is his mother, his father is Richard (who is absent from the film), and his uncle is Ben Parker, who is perhaps better known as ‘Uncle Ben’. This is the same Uncle Ben who teaches Peter that with great power comes great responsibility, and who plays a key role in Peter’s upbringing.

In fact, the movie hints at such when Peter is born. Cassie makes a reference to the baby, presumably based on a vision of the future, which suggests Ben will become responsible for the child.

So, if baby Peter Parker appears in Madame Web, why doesn’t the film make constant references to Peter by name? Simply because it doesn’t need to and doesn’t want to.

Comic book fans are aware of who Ben and Mary are in relation to Peter Parker, so the film merely needs to drop a few hints about the baby and nothing more. There’s no need to go into detail, because this is an in-joke/Easter egg which some audiences will pick up on without any further information.

Madame Web also doesn’t want to keep namechecking Peter Parker, because it could be seen as distracting. The film has little to do with the Parkers, and isn’t a Spider-Man-centric movie, so there’s really no need to constantly reference him.

But yes, that is who it is. The baby is Peter Parker.

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Thank you for stopping by Don’t Tell Harry to read this post about Madame Web. For more posts, be sure to check out the recommended reads below.

Alex is the editor and writer of Don’t Tell Harry – a blog which specialises in all things related to Spider-Man and Marvel Comics. After graduating with a degree in film & television studies, Alex studied journalism, before acquiring NCTJ accreditation. Prior to creating Don’t Tell Harry, Alex was a magazine editor, a senior copywriter, and a freelance writer. He is now, and always has been, a Spider-Man fan!