Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Director Reveals How Many Spider Characters Appear (SPOILER: It’s A LOT)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse arrived in theaters five years ago and introduced the world to a few Spider people from throughout the Spider-Verse. The sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, hit theaters this week and will expand that multiverse in some massive ways. Not only will we finally see more of the Spider-Verse, but we will also seen hundreds of different Spider people. That’s right, there will be hundreds of different Spider-Man characters present in the movie.

Justin Thompson directed Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse alongside Kemp Powers and Joaquin Dos Santos, and Thompson claims there are around 280 different variations of Spider-characters throughout the film. About 100 of them have names, while the rest exist in the background.

“The exact number? Oh boy, we kept adding, like all the way up until the very end,” Thompson told Collider in a recent interview. “Honestly, I’m gonna be level with you, we just finished the film, like in the last like two weeks, and I don’t think I’ve had time to pause and actually take a final count. But I think it was about 280 the last time I looked in. Just to be clear, that doesn’t mean specific, unique characters that you might recognize, it might mean variations as well. But if you’re just talking about named characters, then I think there’s probably about 95.”

Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, and Peter B. Parker remain three of the major characters in the franchise, returning after their starring turns in the first film. Across the Spider-Verse will also include the likes of Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Woman, and Spider-Punk.

Miles Morales returns to the big screen in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, hitting theaters on June 2nd. Miles (Shamiek Moore) reunites with fellow heroes Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) and Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) for another web-swinging adventure through the multiverse, finding himself at odds with the Spider-Society led by Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac). Other new heroes include Spider-Woman Jessica Drew (Issa Rae), Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya), and Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni), while new villain the Spot (Jason Schwartzman) also enters the fray. The sequel to Sony Pictures’ hit 2018 film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, and written by the team of Chris Miller, Phil Lord, and Dave Callaham.