We just saw Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and we have a lot of thoughts. Inspired heavily by Dan Slott’s original 2014 comic run, the original Spider-Verse animated feature quickly swung its way into the hearts of audiences everywhere thanks to its great mix of humour, inspiring themes and eye-grabbingly vibrant visuals.
This sequel puts Miles deep through the looking-glass, into a world with tons of Spider-Man variants (or is it Spider-Men?). And he's going through it all alongside Gwen.
Here’s everything we know about Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2, including its release date, cast and the latest characters confirmed to appear.
Spider-Verse 2 now has three directors, with the previously-reported Joaquim Dos Santos now joined by Kemp Powers (Soul, One Night in Miami) and Justin K. Thompson (Spider-Verse 1).
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse release date
Animated features might demand long development cycles compared to live-action films, but that hasn’t stopped the big wigs over at Sony Pictures from locking in an official Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse release date. It's coming out on June 2, 2023.
Confused? Remembering when it was scheduled for October 7, 2022? Sony announced this delay on April 21, and we're annoyed too.
Oh, and per The Hollywood Reporter, we've just found out that Spider-Man: Behind the Spider-Verse is the name of the third movie in this series. It's coming March 29, 2024.
The previously-announced April 8, 2022 date was pushed back because of the series of Covid-19 related movie delays. That date came courtesy of the Spider-Verse Twitter account this past November, complete with a GIF that offers more than a few clues about which new Spider-Man characters to expect (more on that later). The date was further cemented when one half of writer-director duo Christopher Miller also tweeted it out, along with the statement: “we’re coming back”.
Sony is yet to reveal the release date for any of the teased spin-off movies also currently in development, but a Hollywood Reporter published in November 2018 revealed that Sony was strongly interested in an all-female adventure starring the alternate universe Spider-Gwen. With that said, though, don’t expect it to arrive before Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2 in 2022.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse trailer
The first official Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse trailer revolves around a conversation between Miles and his mother. It catches people up to what happened in part 1, shows Gwen pull him into her world, and shows off a myriad of other Spider-Men.
The two biggest characters seen in this trailer are Issa Rae's Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman and Oscar Isaac's Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099.
Before that, we got the "first look"
This clip dropped weeks before Spider-Man: No Way Home, and gave us another look at the animated Spider-Man 2099 (to be voiced by Oscar Isaac).
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse cast
The first Into the Spider-Verse wasn’t short of memorable characters, so it stands to reason that the sequel will see the debut of even more. However, in terms of the returning cast, we'll get Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld reprising their roles as Miles Morales and Gwen Stacey respectively.
Spider-Woman — voiced by Issa Rae — is also joining the cast, and as mentioned above, Oscar Isaac is voicing Spider-Man 2099.
But what about a villain to face off against Miles and the gang? Well, one of the original film’s co-director’s Rodney Rothman told Screen Rant back in April that Katheryn Han’s Dock Ock would have a much bigger role. He stated: “We definitely think of Liv as someone who is not gone from the story,” which suggests she’ll no longer playing second fiddle to someone like Kingpin as before.
Still, Sony has remained quiet as to whether Ock will ascend to be the new Spiderverse crew’s central big bad, but do expect to see more of her. As for any other villains, Tombstone, Scorpion and Green Goblin all survived the first movie, so there’s a chance they’ll crop up again.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse plot
In an interview with Vanity Fair, producer Amy Pascal revealed that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2 will focus on the relationship between Miles and Gwen.
At CinemaCon, Sony showed a clip that revealed more about what Gwen's up to. According to The Hollywood Reporter, "The clip begins in Gwen Stacy’s dimension, with Gwen and her father, the police chief, as he gets a call. Gwen follows and meets Vulture. O’Hara’s Spider-Man and Spider-woman/Jessica Drew are introduced from another dimension. In the scene, Gwen’s father arrives and tries to arrest her for the murder of Peter Parker, and she removes the mask and reveals her identity. Next we cut to Miles Morales’ world, which introduces Miles in a parent-teacher meeting at his school."
Pascal has also noted that a Spider-Women spin-off (written by Bek Smith) is coming. We expect Spider-Verse 2 to put things in motion for that movie. Its leads will be Spider-Gwen, Cindy Moon (Silk) and Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman).
