Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse feels a lot like the . It’s very much a middle chapter that ends on a substantial cliffhanger, preparing the audiences for the third installment. It’s also a much darker ending than many might have expected. Lead character Miles Morales, aka Spider-Man, is in a very tough spot heading into 2024’s Beyond the Spider-Verse. WARNING: The rest of this article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse…
We learn in Across the Spider-Verse that the spider that bit Miles and turned him into Spider-Man was actually from a different reality — Universe 42. That spider biting Miles kept there from being any Spider-Man at all back in that other universe. At the end of the film, Miles accidentally travels to Universe 42 when he attempts to return home. He comes face-to-face with a reality in which his father was killed and his Uncle Aaron lived. The even bigger surprise is that Aaron isn’t the Prowler; Miles is. The film ends with Spider-Man Miles and Prowler Miles in something of a stand-off.
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Our Miles obviously wants to return home, but there’s also a lot of pain in Universe 42 that he feels responsible for. This puts him in a bind when Beyond the Spider-Verse begins. Directors Kemp Powers, Joaquim Dos Santos, and Justin K. Thompson recently spoke to Variety about Miles’ journey in the upcoming third Spider-Verse film.
“It was really important to have this thing where Miles wants to save his dad, but then he’s faced with this Pottersville version of a world that was created because of this thing that happened to him,” Powers explained. “It’s not going to be as simple as him wanting to just escape this world. He’s going to try and do right by people who feel he’s done wrong by, and that just felt more potentially emotional and unpredictable as we go into the third film. It complicates his mission in a way that we hope people find unexpected and also thrilling.”
“The multiverse provides us with these sort of sliding doors,” Dos Santos added. “It allows us to ask these questions like the head games you play with yourself: ‘If I had done this, instead of that, what happens? How does my life turn out?’ You get to see those things play out on screen.”
Miles Morales returns to the big screen with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse now playing in theaters after premiering 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.
