Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse - Everything You Need To Know

Back in 2018, we'd seen the Spider-Man story play out across six live-action films, featuring three different actors. Then, we got word that a movie called "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" was coming along. Would this animated feature be able to stand out from the Spider-Pack?

The answer was a definitive yes. From the moment "Into the Spider-Verse" hit theater screens, it was hailed as one of the best superhero films ever made. It even won an Academy Award for best animated feature. Focusing on a new Spider-Man, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), and featuring some of the most innovative animation in recent years, "Into the Spider-Verse" brought new life and new storytelling techniques to the wall-crawler's adventures, and now, we're getting a follow-up to that Oscar-winning hit.

Titled "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," this sequel promises to take Miles Morales to all-new worlds, filled with brand new Spider-People, different animation styles, and unexpected threats. But when can we expect to see this multiversal adventure play out? Who's filling out the cast, and what Spider-Men will populate this hyper-colorful movie? Well, read on for everything we know so far about "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse."

June 2023 is going to be a huge month for movie fans. Indiana Jones is coming back for one last ride in "Dial of Destiny." The Scarlet Speedster will be tearing up the big screen in "The Flash." Optimus Prime and Optimus Primal will join forces in "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts." Wes Anderson will make his grand, pastel-colored return in "Asteroid City." And if you'd rather just stay home, Chris Hemsworth will be beating up plenty of bad guys in Netflix's "Extraction 2."

So yeah, there's a whole lot going on in June, and we haven't even gotten to the Spider-Man of it all. That's right — amidst all that competition, "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" will be swinging into theaters on June 2, 2023. Will the movie be able to hold its ground against the competition? We have a hunch that Miles Morales will do just fine.

However, we'll be most interested in seeing how the critical reviews and box office numbers of "Across the Spider-Verse" fare against those of "The Flash." 2018's "Into the Spider-Verse" is hailed as one of the all-time superhero flicks, while many are saying the upcoming "Flash" film will similarly be an instant classic. "Spider-Verse" also helped introduce audiences to the concept of superhero multiverses, which "The Flash" is capitalizing on. What's going to happen when these two heroes compete on theater screens? We can't wait to find out.

Want big stakes? How about multiversal stakes? According to the official plot synopsis for "Across the Spider-Verse," the story will kick off after Miles Morales reunites with Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld). From there, "Brooklyn's full-time friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must redefine what it means to be a hero so he can save the people he loves most."

That new threat is most likely the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), a lesser-known Spidey villain whose body is covered in interdimensional portals, allowing him to jump through space and across universes. It also looks like Miles Morales will be clashing with Miguel O'Hara (Oscar Isaac) aka Spider-Man 2099, the leader of an interdimensional group of Spider-People, who has a very different philosophy when it comes to protecting the multiverse. As for all those multiversal worlds, we know the movie will visit five different universes — Spider-Man 2099's Nueva York, Gwen Stacy's Earth-65, the India-influenced Mumbattan, the punk-inspired New London, and a fifth world that hasn't been revealed yet. Interestingly, each world will be drawn in its own unique animation style.

We also know that "Across the Spider-Verse" will focus on the growing romance between Miles and Gwen Stacy, with director Kemp Powers telling Empire that there will be something of a love triangle between Miles, Gwen, and new character Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya). Perhaps most interestingly, we're wondering if "Across the Spider-Verse" will have some sort of cliffhanger ending meant to set up the upcoming "Beyond the Spider-Verse," which will be released on March 29, 2024. Why do we think that? Speaking with Empire, producer Christopher Miller compared the sequel to "The Empire Strikes Back," saying, "It shows you worlds you haven't seen, and it's an emotional story that ends in a place where you need to see the third one." Whatever happens, we know the core of the story will be Miles discovering who he truly wants to be in this vast multiverse of friends, family, and foes.

Several of the major players from "Into the Spider-Verse" are returning for the sequel. Shameik Moore, who voiced Miles Morales, is back in the lead role, and Hailee Steinfeld is returning to play Gwen Stacy. Jake Johnson is also coming back as Peter B. Parker, and he's a father now to Mayday Parker. Taking care of a kid has to be challenging when said baby also has superhuman abilities. Keeping up with the parental theme, Brian Tyree Henry and Luna Lauren Vélez are returning to play Miles' parents.

Oscar Isaac will also reprise the role of Spider-Man 2099. This futuristic hero showed up in a post-credit scene during "Into the Spider-Verse," and here, he's the leader of a huge group of Spider-People who defend the multiverse. However, he looks to be like an antagonistic force, butting heads with Miles on how to save the world and, more importantly, who to save. Isaac will be joined by Oscar-winner Daniel Kaluuya of "Get Out" fame, playing Hobie Brown aka Spider-Punk, as well as Issa Rae of "Insecure" as a pregnant Jessica Drew aka Spider-Woman. We'll also get to hear Karan Soni of "Deadpool" fame as Spider-Man India and Amandla Stenberg of "Bodies Bodies Bodies" as Spider-Byte.

As for the universe-hopping baddie, Jason Schwartzman — perhaps best known for his work with director Wes Anderson — will be playing the Spot. Jorma Taccone of The Lonely Island will voice a scary-looking version of the Vulture, and he'll be accompanied by his Lonely Island cohort Andy Samberg as Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider. We can also expect to hear the vocal stylings of "SNL" star Rachel Dratch, character actor extraordinaire Shea Whigham, and Greta Lee of "Russian Doll" fame.

Just like "Across the Spider-Verse" boasts multiple Spider-People, the film also boasts multiple directors — three, in fact. We've got Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson.

Dos Santos has a ton of animation experience, having directed episodes of acclaimed series such as "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "Justice League: Unlimited." As for Powers, he earned an Oscar nomination for adapting 2020's "One Night in Miami...," and he also wrote and co-directed Pixar's "Soul." And when it comes to Thompson, he's been involved in animation for quite some time, serving as the production designer on titles like "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2" and the first "Spider-Verse" film.

This is an incredibly talented line-up of filmmakers, and we can't wait to see how their varying styles blend together in this exciting superhero story. They seem pretty psyched themselves. In a joint statement, the three directors said, "The crew behind ... 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' set such a ridiculously high bar, and we're humbled to take on the challenge of charting the next chapter in the story of Miles Morales. We can't wait to surprise fans with the wild new adventure we're sending Miles on with his friends, both old and new!"

Phil Lord and Chris Miller are two of the most creative visionaries in Hollywood. They cooked up "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," took us back to high school with "21 Jump Street," and created a whole world out of yellow bricks with "The LEGO Movie." They've also produced a ton of films from "Cocaine Bear" to "The Mitchells vs. the Machines."

These two were also key to the success of "Into the Spider-Verse," serving as producers and with Phil Lord working on the story. Now, they're back for "Across the Spider-Verse," and they're writing the screenplay with Dave Callaham. While you might not recognize Callaham's name, you've definitely seen some of his movies, as the scribe has penned titles like 2021's "Mortal Kombat," "Wonder Woman 1984," and "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings."

In addition to working on the script, Lord and Miller are also producing the pic, along with some pretty key Hollywood players. There's Avi Arad, who was the founder of Marvel Studios. There's also Amy Pascal, the former head of Sony Pictures Entertainment. They'll be joined by Christina Steinberg, who previously produced "Into the Spider-Verse" and titles such as "National Treasure" and "Rise of the Guardians."

The two official trailers for "Across the Spider-Verse" have got us extremely hyped for the upcoming film, with its huge cast of characters and beautifully designed worlds. The first "Across the Spider-Verse" trailer does a great job of setting the tone for what we're about to witness, giving us glimpses of both emotional moments and action-packed scenes. We see Miles and Gwen share a sweet rooftop moment, we watch Jessica Drew battle the Vulture while atop a motorcycle, and we see our hero at odds with basically every Spider-Person in the multiverse.

As the trailer plays out, we hear Miles' mom giving him words of encouragement, telling him to take care of himself — that little boy she's raised and loved — as he ventures out into the world. "Wherever you go from here," she says, "you have to promise to take care of that little boy for me, make sure he never forgets where he comes from, and he never doubts that he is loved, and he never lets anyone tell him he doesn't belong there." We have a feeling all that will play pretty heavily into the events of the film, as Spider-Man 2099 seemingly doesn't want Miles involved at all in his society of Spider-Men.

The second trailer delves more into the plot, as we see a confused Miles encountering the Spot, whose portals make him a particularly tricky villain to deal with. We also see him reuniting with Peter B. Parker, we watch as Spider-Punk rocks out, and we see Spider-Man India soaring across the screen. It also seems that Miles' secret superhero life might be causing some conflict at home, and the trailer also hints that his family life might play a huge part in the film. At one point, we see Miles' dad in serious peril, and that's when Spider-Man 2099 says, "Miles, being Spider-Man is a sacrifice. You have a choice between saving one person and saving every world."

However, ever the true hero, Miles plans on saving everyone, and he refuses to let anyone dictate how he lives his life. "Everyone keeps telling me how my story is supposed to go. Nah, I'm gonna do my own thing." We're definitely rooting for you, Miles, but with hundreds of Spideys on your trail, that's going to be quite the feat.

Multiverses are all the rage right now, especially in the world of Marvel. Obviously, "Across the Spider-Verse" will deal with multiple dimensions, and in the MCU, those heroes have been dealing with other universes in series like "Loki" and movies like "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania." However, perhaps the most notable MCU project to deal with multiverses was "Spider-Man: No Way Home," which found Peter Parker and Stephen Strange up against a sudden influx of alternate reality bad guys and different versions of Spider-Man.

That event was so huge that it evidently caught Miguel O'Hara's attention. In the second official trailer for "Across the Spider-Verse," the irate hero starts ranting about the events of "No Way Home," telling Miles, "Don't even get me started on Doctor Strange and the little nerd back on Earth-199999!" So it looks like Sony's animated world is a part of this larger fabric of Spider-Universes that includes Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire.

Interestingly, this does call a few things into question. In "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," it's made clear that Strange lives on Earth-616, which is the main Marvel universe in the comics. However, O'Hara says Strange lives on Earth-199999, which was the MCU's designation for the longest time, dating back to a reference in 2008's "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z, Vol. 5." While "Multiverse of Madness" seemed to have changed things up, it looks like Spider-Man 2099 has different ideas, so we need someone to clear up this mess sooner than later, thanks.

At the time of this writing, "Across the Spider-Verse" hasn't been rated yet. However, we expect it to follow in the footsteps of its forebearer, "Into the Spider-Verse." The 2018 Spidey flick earned a PG rating for "frenetic sequences of animated action violence, thematic elements, and mild language." Based on all the footage we've seen for the sequel, that seems to pretty much sums up "Across the Spider-Verse," so expect part two to also get a PG.

While we're all excitedly waiting for June 2 to get here, it might be a good time to go back and revisit what happened to Miles Morales in "Into the Spider-Verse."

In the first film, Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider and finds himself thrust into a multiversal adventure where he meets characters like Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage) and Spider-Ham (John Mulaney). He also deals with some serious family drama, and he also learns to trust himself and take a massive leap of faith. The film won an Oscar for best animated feature, and it more than holds its own alongside classic titles in the superhero genre like "The Dark Knight" and "Spider-Man 2."

You can stream "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" on FXNow and DIRECTV. You can also rent it for $3.99 on sites like Google Play, Prime Video, Vudu, and YouTube.

There is little denying that "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" was a huge success for Sony. Not only did it receive critical and fan acclaim and win a number of high-profile awards, but the film was also a commercial success, grossing more than $375 million at the box office. So it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that a sequel would be developed to try and take advantage of that popularity. But it isn't just "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" that is on the way, with Sony also greenlighting several spin-offs as well.

According to an exclusive report by Deadline, Bek Smith is writing a "Spider-Women" film that will feature three different generations of female superheroes who all have powers similar to Spider-Man. Several producers and writers from "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" are also set to be involved, including Amy Pascal and Avi Arad. Meanwhile, Chris Miller has also revealed that he and Phil Lord are also developing a number of television series based on Marvel characters, some of which are connected to the "Spider-Verse" franchise, although the executive producer would not give out any concrete details.

Along with the upcoming sequel, fans of "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" will get another dose of the web-slinging hero in 2023 with the release of a short called "The Spider Within." Per Variety, the short film will chart the anxiety that Miles Morales suffers from as he tries to be a superhero while also growing up as a teenager. It will also look at how the character manages the pressures he experiences and how important it is to not only be strong but also to seek help when things get tough.

"The Spider Within" is being developed as part of Sony's Leading and Empowering New Storytellers program, which has been designed to give talented individuals from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the movie and television industries. The short is set to arrive in June, around the same time that "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" will hit cinema screens. It will first be shown at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival before being released publicly for everyone to see.

When Sony first revealed the title for the "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" sequel, it also confirmed that it would not be the only sequel. In fact, the second movie was unveiled under the title "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One)," suggesting that the second and third films were strongly connected and would effectively tell one story split over two parts. Phil Lord and Chris Miller later explained that when they came to write the film they had too many ideas to fit into a single release and so began working on two movies at the same time.

In 2022, we learned the third film would have a new title in the form of "Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse." All indications are that this movie will continue the story from "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" and follow Miles Morales and the other Spider-People who make up its cast. It is due to release less than a year after its predecessor, with a scheduled release date of March 29, 2024.

It is not unusual for animated films to take a lot longer to produce than typical live-action releases. There are a few reasons for this, including the fact that animation can be a labor-intensive process and 3D computer animation can take huge amounts of time to render. This means that animated movies can typically have hundreds of people as part of the production crew, all working on different aspects of the title to get it out in a reasonable time frame.

A good example of this is "The Lion King," the 1994 movie that was part of the Disney Renaissance and was one of the last traditionally animated releases from the company. Around 600 animators, artists, and technicians were involved in the production from its conception until it hit cinema screens. Meanwhile, "Frozen II," had a team that was 800 people strong working on the project.

Yet "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" puts all of these numbers to shame. The new film had more than 1,000 people as part of the crew, with Phil Lord and Chris Miller telling Deadline that it has the largest crew of any animated movie ever made — significantly more than worked on the first film.

When discussing the sheer size of "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" with Deadline, Phil Lord and Chris Miller spoke about how many characters would be included in the movie. They also joked that CEO of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group Tom Rothman wasn't aware of the scale of their project, saying: "Don't tell Tom. The number of characters. This movie has 240 characters." Considering that the film will feature five different dimensions, including a secret one that has yet to be revealed, there's a lot of scope for various heroes, villains, and other variants to appear.

Some of the new and returning characters who have been confirmed for "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" include Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Woman, Bombastic Bag-Man, and the Amazing Spider-Monkey. But some that could show up in the series include the cowboy-like Web-Slinger, the Mexican hero Arácnido, Jr., an Otto Octavius fusion known as Superior Spider-Man, and the infamous Venom. It's likely, though, that fans won't get a full picture of exactly who is included in the film until it hits cinema screens in June.

Every major movie comes with marketing deals that help spread the word about the film and bring in some extra revenue for studios. For instance, "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" had promotional partnerships with a number of other companies, including collaborations with Super League Gaming and General Mills, offering people the chance to experience video game challenges based on the movie as well as buy cereal with imagery from the final release.

So it shouldn't be a huge shock to learn that Sony already has a few marketing deals in place ahead of the release of "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" in June. Deadline reported in 2020 that Sony had teamed up with Hyundai to include vehicles and technology from the motor company in the movie and several other releases from the film studio. There will also be a series of 15 Funko Pop figures based on characters and events from the 2023 movie, including Spider-Man India, Spider-Gwen, and Miles Morales.

"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" had a soundtrack that was made up of a traditional film score and a mixture of previously released music from established artists — such as tracks from DJ Khalil, Post Malone, and Nicki Minaj. The score was composed by Daniel Pemberton, an award-winning musician who has previously worked on "Yesterday," "Enola Holmes 2," and "Black Mirror."

The good news for fans of the first film is that Pemberton is returning for the sequel, providing a score that he has described as "the most complicated, out-there, crazy score I've probably ever written," when speaking to Polygon. He later went on to give an idea of what viewers can expect to hear when they see the film, saying it will include: "Drum solos, opera vocals, punk rock, Indian percussion, techno drums, extreme time stretching, emotional orchestration, arpeggiated synths, and crazy sound design."

Phil Lord and Chris Miller have also revealed that "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" will have music from record producer and DJ Metro Boomin. The musician has released two albums of superhero-themed music and will create music for the film that the writers believe Miles Morales would listen to (via Hypebeast).

Kris Anka is probably best known for his work on a variety of Marvel Comics characters. He has previously provided artwork for a number of high-profile series, including the likes of "X-Men" and "Captain Marvel" as well as some of the more recent "Star-Lord" issues. However, he has also been closely associated with "Spider-Man" throughout his career.

In 2020, CBR reported that Anka was involved in "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," although it didn't detail exactly what his role in the production actually was. Things changed a few months later when the artist replied to a question on Twitter to confirm that he was working on the movie full-time as a character designer. Anka certainly has plenty of experience in character design, as he is the comic book artist who was responsible for modernizing the look of Spider-Woman.