Director Joaquim Dos Santos has teased a lot more characters and a lot more universes in the follow-up toSpider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Speaking withCollider, the filmmaker revealed that they are looking at all manner of Spidey variants for the finale,Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, which has included wrangling the legalities of certain, more obscure takes, on the beloved Marvel superhero.
“A lot of characters– Look, not only is it, you know, sort of like this crazy web that we weave in the film, but untangling the legalities of what characters we can and can’t use… Some of them were straight bootleg. We watched this thing called Italian Spiderman. I don’t know if you guys are familiar with it, but it’s bonkers. It’s completely bootleg, it’s not owned by anybody except the crazy people that made it on the internet. We tried for Italian Spiderman at some point. Marvel was like, “We don’t know what you’re talking about, dude. That’s not ours,” so yeah… So all that stuff’s on the table.”
After introducing a handful of Spider-People in 2018’sSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verseups the ante more than many could have ever imagined, bringinghundreds of different versions of the characterto the big screen including Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Punk, Spider-Woman, Spider-Man India, Spider-Rex, Spider-Cat, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Bombastic Bag-Man, Cyborg Spider-Woman, and even Peter Parkedcar aka Spider-Mobile.
How exactly Joaquim Dos Santos and his co-directors Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson plan to top this inSpider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verseremains to be seen, but the very idea of meeting even more members of the Spider-Society should have audiences even more excited about the sequel than they already are.
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Everything Is on the Table for Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse
But what about the universes that all these Spider-People inhabit? Well, according to Joaquim Dos Santos, everything is on the table when it comes toSpider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. Andthat includes more live action.
“I mean, you saw it in the film, there was cool stuff to be seen. I think everything’s on the table. I can’t give you an answer. I wouldn’t dare give you an answer for fear of being, like, sniped right here on the spot, but yeah, I mean, that’s the exciting thing of these films. Look, I’m a man of a certain age, and in my mid-forties, the idea that I would be seeing a film like this, so beyond what I could imagine, even when I was a kid, it’s the stuff that I would draw in school on my notebook paper, and now it’s happening. So I think everything’s up.”
Until then, Miles Morales is busy reuniting with Gwen Stacy andbeing catapulted across the MultiverseinSpider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. However, when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders. He must soon redefine what it means to be a hero so he can save the people he loves most.
Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson, from a screenplay written by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and David Callaham,Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Versestars a large ensemble cast that includes Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Vélez, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Karan Soni, Daniel Kaluuya, and Oscar Isaac.
Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, is scheduled to be released on June 24, 2025.
