SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

MILES MORALES RETURNS – AND WITH MORE SPIDER-FRIENDS THAN EVER. THE DIRECTORS OF SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE GUIDE US THROUGH THEIR WEBBY MULTIVERSE. TRY NOT TO GET TANGLED

WORDS: JACK SHEPHERD

STOCK ELEMENTS: GETTY

Miles and Gwen Stacy take on The Spot.

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE Spider-Verse was a revelation; a cinematic masterpiece that pushed the boundaries of animation. “It just opened up what is possible, what is acceptable, what the audience is willing to take in,” says animator Joaquim Dos Santos. “I came in at the tail end and there were still some screenings where executives were going, ‘I don’t understand, why does it look blurry? I don’t know why these dots are all over the place.’ And it’s like, ‘I promise you, when it’s all together, you will understand.’”

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The world certainly understood what was going on. Into The Spider-Verse brought the multiverse into the mainstream, paving the way for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to introduce multiple versions of the same character. Not only that, but many of the animated movies that have followed – Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, The Mitchells vs The Machines and Seth Rogen’s upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem – have emulated its form-pushing style.

“Establishing a new cinematic language is not something that people are usually open to,” explains Kemp Powers, who co-wrote Pixar’s Soul. “It really just gave everybody permission to go crazy,” adds Dos Santos.

Of course, with great box office success comes a great desire for more, and even before Into The Spider-Verse reached cinemas, a sequel entered development. In 2018, writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (previously best known for directing 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie) began working on a screenplay with David Callaham, while Powers, Dos Santos and Justin K Thompson came aboard to co-direct.

With their great responsibilities divided out, they forged ahead with creating a second film about the newly appointed Spider-Man, Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore), one that takes our hero deeper into the multiverse than ever before.

If Into The Spider-Verse was about Miles learning that anyone could wear the mask, then the sequel, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, is about him learning how to wear the mask. “It’s speaking to this idea of, there’s more than one way to be a hero,” Powers tells SFX. “As it pertains to Spider-Man, it’s speaking to this idea: what are the rules of being Spider-Man? What are the rules of being a hero? And do we always have to stick so rigidly to those rules?