Credit: Sony PicturesSpider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) has been four years in the making. The first installment in the Spider-Verse trilogy, Into the Spider-Verse, was released in 2018 and the crew has been working on the sequel ever since.
Fans praised Into the Spider-Verse for its innovative combination of animation styles and technique development, praise that has continued to grow in the wake of Across the Spider-Verse’s release last weekend. The trilogy focuses on Miles Morales, the first biracial Spider-Man as he learns about the multiverse and the hundreds of Spider-People variants. As production moved forward on the sequel, audiences started to complain of “superhero fatigue” in the wake of Marvel’s ever-growing list of projects.
With over 30 films released in the last 15 years and several MCU-connected series released on Disney+, fans have started to grow tired of the Marvel formula. While many call it superhero fatigue, Spider-Verse producers and co-writers Philip Lord and Chris Miller disagree. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the pair shared their opinions on fan burnout.
Miller disagrees with the idea of superhero fatigue, explaining instead that it’s an issue of repetitiveness, claiming “I believe it’s ‘a movie that feels like a movie I’ve seen a dozen times before’ fatigue.” He states that it’s not even just an issue with the superhero genre, but that any film that uses the same story structure and style as previous movies is going to become old quickly.
On the other hand, Lord explains that fans are tired of relying on Easter eggs and “big, crazy multiverse stakes.” According to him, viewers care more about the human relationships and connections shown in the movies than how that movie fits into a bigger, multi-movie plot or story. He claims that’s why fans like the Spider-Verse movies so much, is because at their core, they’re about Miles and his relationship with his parents. Although the multiverse is a thing within the films, the family dynamic is much more important.
Not only are the Spider-Verse films refreshing in their animation style, so different from the Disney and Pixar 3D fans have come to expect, but the fact that they don’t serve to set up another major villain or plot for the next movie is a twist audiences have learned not to expect. While the franchise will end with the release of Beyond the Spider-Verse, it may open the door to an entirely new version of superhero movie.
Do you think Spider-Verse will avoid the superhero fatigue sweeping the MCU? Share your thoughts in the comments below!