Every year there are plenty of movies that hit theaters and completely fly under the radar. Sometimes its smaller films, or those that are released during packed schedules where they get lost amidst major blockbusters. But sometimes, the films that get overlooked are the ones that boast some big names and you’d expect to get some attention. That’s the case for Jennifer Lopez’s remake of a major 41-year-old thriller that was quietly in and out of theaters last fall — but now that it’s finally coming to streaming at last it’s a movie that Star Wars fans won’t want to miss.
Hitting Hulu on February 27th, Kiss of the Spider Woman received positive reviews from critics, but was a box office bomb, grossing a mere $2 million at the box office against a production budget of $30 million. The film had a brief theatrical release in October 2025, but largely vanished after that, despite some awards season buzz for Jennifer Lopez’s performance. The film, a musical drama based on a stage musical which was itself based on the 1976 novel of the same name, Kiss of the Spider Woman just didn’t seem to capture the audience despite its critical acclaim and cast — which in addition to Lopez includes Tonatiuh, Bruno Bichir, Josefina Scaglione, and Andor star Diego Luna.
Set in Argentina, in Kiss of the Spider Woman, Luis Molina (Tonatiuh) is convicted and jailed for public indecency and ends up sharing a jail cell with the revolutionary Valentin Arregui (Luna). To cope, Luis leans into his favorite movie star Ingrid Luna (Lopez) and her movie ‘The Kiss of the Spider Woman’ and ends up sharing it with Valentin. The two become immersed in the story together and fall in love, though in the real-world Luis has to grapple with the real reason he’s in prison and the difficult choice he’s going to have to make.
While the film is technically a musical that features a number of songs performed largely by Luis (Tonatiuh) and Valentin (Luna), it’s not the music that stands out. Instead, it’s the story and the acting. The film’s main cast all received significant praise from critics, specifically Tonatiuh and Luna. What is particularly interesting about Kiss of the Spider Woman, however, especially for Star Wars fans, is that Luna plays a revolutionary in this film as well as in Andor and while the two characters are very different (as are the worlds they exist in), there are some definite parallels in their journeys. More than that, both Valentin in Kiss of the Spider Woman and Cassian in Andor have a shared motivation when it comes to their reasons for rebellion. Both men find love as a driving force, though their outcomes are quite different. It makes for an interesting exploration, to watch Kiss of the Spider Woman having already seen Andor and while Kiss of the Spider Woman wasn’t exactly a box office hit, now that it’s arriving on Hulu, now is a great time to check it out.
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