Look, normally the idea of piling on characters and adding fan-pleasing winks in a big franchise sequel is absolute poison. This should be too many Spider-Men! Yet, after Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse became both one of our one of our favorite films of 2018 and one of our favorite Spider-Man movies of all time, we will give it a helluva lot of leeway in taking that path here—especially with how esoteric it’s going!
Have a peek with the trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Shameik Moore’s Miles Morales, Hailee Steinfeld’s Gwen Stacy, and Jake Johnson’s Peter B. Parker return—now alongside the likes of Oscar Isaac’s Spider-Man 2099, Issa Rae’s Spider-Woman, Daniel Kaluuya’s Spider-Punk, and a ton of other disparate Spider-Identities. Among them: Japanese Spider-Man (TV’s Japanese Spider-Man, not the anime girl from the last one), Mangaverse Spider-Man (again different), the Bombastic Bag Man, PlayStation Spider-Man, Spider-Armor MKII, Spider-Man Unlimited, and so many others that will be selectively pleasing or confusing to audiences. PLUS: the sequel adds Jason Schwartzman as the Spot and Jorma Taccone as the Vulture!
Again, we’d be skeptical were this not: first, being a slick-looking follow-up to one of the best animated films in recent years, and, second, again coming from Phil Lord and Chris Miller—whose talent at spinning the straw of The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and the original Spider-Verse into gold shouldn’t even require mention at this point. This will almost certainly be vastly better than it has any right to be.
But can it surpass fellow first-sequel Spider-Man 2 in our all-time Spider-Ranking? We’ll find out next summer. And don’t forget this is just part one!
