Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is asked to make a sacrifice to save the multiverse Spider-Man: About the Spider-Verse.
We loved the 2018 computer animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and we were not alone. The film made $375.5 million at the worldwide box office against a $90 million production budget and won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature – the first non-Pixar film to do so since 2011. Now Sony Pictures has released a new trailer for the much-anticipated sequel: Spider-Man: About the Spider-Verse.
(Spoilers for 2018 In the Spider-Verse below.)
As we previously reported, In the Spider-Verse centered around a new incarnation of everyone’s favorite web-slinging superhero: Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), a teenage graffiti artist of black and Puerto Rican descent. When Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man (Chris Pine), was killed by Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) in his own universe, Miles (who was also bitten by a radioactive spider) took on the Spider-Man mantle . He had to stop Fisk, who started opening portals to parallel universes where Fisk’s wife and son are still alive.
Miles succeeded with the help of Spider-Man incarnations from other universes, most notably Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld). Other versions of Peter Parker were played by Jake Johnson, who reluctantly mentors Miles; Peni Parker/SP/dr (Kimiko Glenn) from an anime-inspired parallel universe; Nicholas Cage does his best thirties black Humphrey Bogart impression; and my personal favorite, Peter Porker, aka Spider-Ham (John Mulaney). In the post-credits, we met Miguel O’Hara, aka Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac), who plays a major role in About the Spider-Verse (apparently the crew has named the character “Property Damage Spider-Man”).
Moore, Steinfeld, and Isaac all reprise their roles, along with Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker, Miles’ mentor from the 2018 film; Luna Lauren Velez as Rio Morales, Miles’ mother; and Brian Tyree Henry as Miles’ police officer father, Jefferson Davis. New characters include Daniel Kaluuya as Hobie Brown/Spider-Punk (he’s a guitarist in a British punk rock band); Issa Rae as Jessica Drew, a pregnant Spider-Woman from another universe; and Shea Whigham as Gwen’s father, Police Chief George Stacy. The main villain this time around is the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), whose body is covered in interdimensional portals designed to look like “living ink that was spilled or splattered on a cartoonist’s drawing”. According to the official premise:
Miles Morales returns for the next chapter of the Oscar-winning Spider-Verse sagaSpider-Man: About the Spider-Verse. After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, encountering a team of Spider-People tasked with protecting its very existence. But when the heroes disagree on how to deal with a new threat, Miles must face off against the other Spiders and redefine what it means to be a hero so he can save the people he loves. loves the most.
The first trailer was released last December and featured six different animation styles used for the universe of each Spider-Man incarnation. This latest trailer reveals a few more details about the plot. Miles gets used to his role as Brooklyn’s “one and only Spider-Man,” but his crime-fighting extracurricular activities cut into family obligations and school. (His B in Spanish doesn’t go down well with his parents.) Things start to get crazy when Miles encounters the Spot and Gwen Stacy reappears to take him on another multiverse adventure involving the aforementioned group of Spider-People. involved, including Isaac’s Spider-Man 2099.
But Miles is about to discover that Spider-Man comes at a great personal cost – in this case, his own father. “You have a choice between saving one person and saving every world,” he is told. However, Miles refuses to accept this, insisting he can do both. His Peter Parker mentor (now with a new baby) reminds him that Spider-Man doesn’t always win, and without Uncle Ben’s death in all other incarnations, “most of us wouldn’t be here.”
Miles refuses to accept that fate. “Everyone keeps telling me how my story should go,” he says. “No. I’m going to do my own thing.” And that puts him against the elite group of Spider-People. Honestly, the whole trailer is worth watching just for the funny nod to that classic Spider-Man meme with three versions pointing at each other in confusion.
Spider-Man: About the Spider-Verse hits theaters June 2, 2023.
Frame image by Sony Pictures
