Credit: EmpireSpider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018) was arguably one of the best animated films to come out in recent years.
Into the Spider-Verse introduced audiences to a different Spider-Man than they’d seen before. Where the primary adaptations had featured Peter Parker, Spider-Verse connected viewers to Miles Morales in the first animated Spider-Man film. As Miles struggles to make his police officer father proud, he’s bitten by a radioactive spider and has to quickly adjust to having the powers of Spider-Man. Over the course of the film, Miles realizes there are other dimensions and ends up meeting his Spider-Man counterparts from other universes, including Spider-Ham and Spider-Man Noir. At the end of the film, the characters each return to their own dimension, but it’s revealed that Spider-Gwen has found a way to contact Miles from her universe.
Combining artistic styles from 2-D to 3-D to everything in between while keeping a love for the comic book style at its core, the film was highly praised by critics and fans, and it’s no wonder a sequel was soon announced. Across the Spider-Verse is set to release later this summer and will take a deeper dive into the universes viewers briefly saw in the first film.
In an interview with Empire Magazine, director Joaquim Dos Santos reveals that Miles will be traveling through several universes, with “each world a robust place.” Viewers will see Earth-65, home to Gwen Stacy, Mumbattan, inspired by India, Nueva York, home to Spider-Man 2099, and New London, which is home to Spider-Punk. There is also a fifth universe that will be featured, although it’s being kept a secret for the time being. Dos Santos describes the film as “five films in one,” and implies that the production team has pulled out all the stops for the 2023 sequel.
While these are just the Spider-Verses that have been revealed so far, artwork for the film suggests that fans will see a myriad of Spider-people in a dizzying sequence of events.
What Spider-Man iteration are you most excited to see in Across the Spider-Verse? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments!