One of the more fun cinematic surprises of 2018 was Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, a clever, animated take on everyone’s favorite webhead. The movie was produced by the acclaimed team of Phil Lord & Chris Miller, who managed to spin comedy gold from such offbeat properties as The Lego Movie and 21 Jumpstreet. With its groundbreaking, beautifully rendered animation, the film introduced the fan-favorite Miles Morales as an alternate version of Spider-Man and was a precursor of the multi-verse craze infecting many superhero franchises. I was nervous about another iteration of Spidey, especially outside the MCU. But the movie immediately won me over with the “comics code authority” opening label, becoming a wildly creative, candy-coated homage to the comic book roots of our favorite teenage superhero.
Sony hopes to repeat the magic in this follow-up to the Oscar-winning original, bringing back Lord and Miller as producers and co-writers. Miles Morales reteams with Gwen Stacey and the other Spidey iterations as they battle a new, super-powered villain. The film looks to add many more multi-verse variations of Spider-Man, adding the talents of Issa Rae, Rachel Dratch, Jason Schwartzman, and Daniel Kaluuya to the already impressive original voice cast. As this is just a teaser, we don’t get much story information, but the animation looks just as impressive and eye-popping as the first go-round.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse opens on June 2, 2023. Check out the trailer below and let me know your thoughts in the comments section.
I really enjoyed the first go-round with Miles, and am looking forward to this next chapter. The trailer looks very good. I will say my enjoyment on the first movie was no doubt in part due to the fantastic look it achieved, paying tribute with its comic book look. This time around, I’m going to want a solid storyline to like this one as well as the first. I won’t be impressed if they just throw out more versions of the character. Hoping there is a high-stakes plot involved here. I’ll be there when it opens!
Hi Bruce, I’m in complete agreement. It was fun to see Miles come to life in such a compelling way with that gorgeous animation. But this new teaser didn’t give us much in the way of plot or storyline. I hope the filmmakers don’t give us more of the same, relying on the multi-verse formula. But I am heartened to see a solid lineup of films being released in the theatre for 2023. I hope that the bottleneck of sporadic releases is coming to an end.
Chad, I sure hope the number of releases starts to get closer to what we’ve been used to in 2023. Looking forward to seeing more films at the theatre, and hopefully there will be less “holes” in the release calendar.