Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

• 1. Introduction

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  Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the 2023 animated film about the teenage hero Miles Morales, runs 140 minutes. That makes it the longest animated film ever produced by an American studio, edging past Consuming Spirits from 2012. Its crew finished work on the 20th of May 2023, only 13 days before the United States release. Behind that tight finish sits a sequel that spans six universes and revolves around a rule called canon events. How do you give every world its own hand-made identity? Why did one sequel turn into two films? And why does a whole society of Spider-People fear breaking a single rule of storytelling? Sony had a follow-up in development by the end of November 2018, a month before the first film even reached theaters.

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• 2. Six Worlds, Six Looks

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  On the 9th of June 2020, lead animator Nick Kondo announced that production on the film had begun. The animation was made by Sony Pictures Imageworks in Vancouver, with Michael Lasker as visual effects supervisor. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller had picked up new tools while working on The Mitchells vs. the Machines, and they used them to give each universe the look of a different artist's hand. The goal was to jolt the audience every time the heroes stepped into a new place.

  Earth-65, the home of Gwen Stacy, was rendered as impressionistic watercolor. The team built a simulator to generate the style, and its palette shifts with Gwen's feelings like a three dimensional mood ring. Co-director Justin K. Thompson traced the idea to the 1950 film Cinderella, where the surroundings react when her dress is torn. Miller added that the look was meant to echo the covers of the Spider-Gwen comics.

  Nueva York, the futuristic home of Spider-Man 2099, borrowed from the neo-futurist illustrations of Syd Mead. Designers also looked to Ron Cobb, John Bell, John Berkey, John Harris and Ralph McQuarrie, along with the architecture of Oscar Niemeyer. The city is brutalist, minimal and tightly controlled, a mirror of its leader Miguel. Yet the film suggests that once you go underground, the order falls apart. A different world, Earth-50101, was nicknamed Mumbattan by the crew, a blend of Mumbai and Manhattan, and it came from the Spider-Man: India comic series published by Gotham Entertainment Group.

  Spider-Punk's style took two to three years to develop. It draws on 1970s punk album covers, posters and zines, with the washed-out gray of Xerox copies made on machines short of toner. Animators even varied the frame rates. His body moves on 3s or 2s, his guitar on 4s, and his outline on 2s or 1s, while most other characters move mostly on 2s. A late addition was a Lego sequence by Preston Mutanga, a 14-year-old Canadian animator. The filmmakers tracked him down after they saw his fan-made Lego recreation of the film's first teaser.

  Character designs pulled from just as many sources. The villain called the Spot was shaped by the Austrian artist Egon Schiele, and he begins as an unfinished sketch with blue construction lines. His portals were meant to look like living ink splattered across a comic artist's page. The Vulture took his Renaissance look from the workbooks of Leonardo da Vinci. Rick Leonardi, the co-creator of Spider-Man 2099, adapted his own designs, and Brian Stelfreeze shaped the look of Jess Drew. Thompson also said the spider in the Go Home Machine echoes the one in the 1983 film Krull, and it carries the name Ynyr after a character from that movie.

  Gwen's design changed as well. Her new hair took pink highlights from Gwen Poole after a reference mix-up. In January 2024, production designer Patrick O'Keefe credited artist Peter Chan with the choice, based on Gurihiru's work on The Unbelievable Gwenpool: Beyond the Fourth Wall. Her bedroom borrowed its palette from Gwenpool's hospital gown. That bedroom would later become the center of a censorship dispute.

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• 3. A Sequel Split in Two

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  In December 2018, producer Amy Pascal told the press that the sequel would focus on Miles and Gwen Stacy, exploring a romance that had been cut from the first film. She also called it a launching pad for a planned Gwen spin-off. Joaquim Dos Santos was set to direct and Dave Callaham to write. Sony officially confirmed the sequel in November 2019, with Lord and Miller returning as producers and a release date of the 8th of April 2022.

  By February 2021, Miller said he and Lord were writing the screenplay with Callaham. Before they had a script, a villain or a list of universes, the team had already decided the film must be about family. Its central struggle was the pull of being both a son and a Spider-Man. In April 2021, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson were announced as co-directors beside Dos Santos. Thompson had been production designer on the first film.

  In December 2021, Lord and Miller revealed that the film would be released in two parts. They had written the story they wanted and realized it was too big for one movie. Both halves were worked on at the same time. In April 2022 they were renamed Across the Spider-Verse and Beyond the Spider-Verse. The earlier plan for the 8th of April 2022 had already slipped to the 7th of October 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Across the Spider-Verse was now pushed to the 2nd of June 2023.

  Lord and Miller said they had promised Sony a film about the size of the first. It became the largest animation crew ever assembled, with around 1,000 people. The film holds 240 characters across six universes. Many more were considered and dropped, including versions of Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, Electro, Rhino and Chameleon. Takuya Yamashiro, the Japanese Spider-Man from the 1978 series, was designed but never appeared. A scene featuring Delilah, an assassin who tends the Bar with No Name, was cut and she later turned up in the video game Spider-Man 2.

  In May 2023, Powers admitted the film ends on a cliffhanger, and Dos Santos compared it to The Empire Strikes Back. Powers said the team knew a third chapter was guaranteed, which let them tell this story differently. He insisted the film still has an arc of its own to complete.

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• 4. Canon Events

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  In Nueva York, Miguel O'Hara tells Miles Morales that every Spider-Person's life contains canon events that must not be disrupted. One example is the death of a police captain close to Spider-Man. Break the pattern, he warns, and a universe may collapse, which could drag the whole multiverse down with it. Miles then realizes his father Jeff, who has just been promoted to captain, is next in line. He refuses to abandon him, and Miguel imprisons him for it. Miguel later reveals that Miles was never meant to be Spider-Man, because the spider that bit him came from Earth-42. The Society calls him an anomaly.

  The filmmakers built the idea as commentary on canon itself and on who gets to be Spider-Man. Miles's isolation was inspired by the cold fan reaction to his early comic appearances. Thompson said the team wanted the whole world to be represented in that character. Lord described Miles as trying to be his own person without losing where he came from. The message from the first film, that anyone can wear the mask, is pushed harder here.

  Gwen's story answers the same rule from another angle. Her father George, a police captain, is hunting Spider-Woman without knowing it is his daughter. When she reveals herself, he resigns from the force instead of arresting her, which spares him his own canon event. Gwen is ejected from the Society for defending Miles, after Miguel and Jess Drew threaten to send her home to be arrested. Thompson said the two see each other as the only person in any dimension who can understand them. Gwen's Spider-Sense even warns her when Miles is trapped elsewhere.

  Hobie Brown, voiced by Daniel Kaluuya, stands for resistance to a system gone wrong. Kaluuya said the character sees that a community of heroes empowering people can still harden into an establishment that, in his words, eradicates the individual. Hobie shelters Gwen in his dimension and backs Miles to the end. Jess takes Gwen on as a pupil and becomes a mother figure, but that bond fades while Hobie's loyalty holds.

  After the film opened, canon event spread on TikTok as a meme for an ironic or even painful life experience. Collins Dictionary named it one of ten contenders for its 2023 word of the year, defining it as an event essential to forming a person's character or identity.

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• 5. Casting and Cameos

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  Oscar Isaac was confirmed in December 2021 to reprise Miguel O'Hara, the role he first played in a post-credits scene of the first film. He described Miguel as the one Spider-Man without a sense of humor. Issa Rae joined in June 2021 as Jess Drew, and Jake Johnson confirmed a month later that he would return as Peter B. Parker. Kaluuya was confirmed as Hobie in November 2022, and Karan Soni was cast as Pavitr Prabhakar in February 2023.

  Jason Schwartzman was announced in June 2022 as the Spot, Johnathon Ohnn. The role began with a suggestion from producer Avi Arad. Lord and Miller first dismissed it, but they warmed to the idea once they discussed his portal powers. Powers called the Spot one of the deepest cuts in Spider-Man's rogue gallery. A second villain was later written out of the film.

  The Spider-Society is a roll call of Spider-Man across media. Andy Samberg voices Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider. Amandla Stenberg plays Margo Kess, a Spider-Woman who operates a virtual avatar from her home reality. Sofia Barclay voices Malala Windsor, an original Spider-UK who wears a hijab. Danielle Perez voices Charlotte Webber, a fan-created character who uses a wheelchair. The composer Metro Boomin appears as Metro Spider-Man, and there are versions from the Unlimited and Spectacular Spider-Man television series, a Lego Spider-Man, and the hero of the Insomniac video games. The 1967 animated Spider-Man returns, again voiced by Jorma Taccone, from the first film's post-credits scene.

  Live action is woven in too. Donald Glover reprises Aaron Davis from Spider-Man: Homecoming, shown as a prisoner of the Society pulled from his home reality. Peggy Lu returns as Mrs. Chen. Archival footage brings in Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Kirsten Dunst and Bryce Dallas Howard, and archival audio of Alfred Molina gives voice to a hologram of Doctor Octopus. Powers insisted the film is not tied to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Even so, Miguel complains about Doctor Strange and that little nerd on Earth-199999, a throwaway line that Lord and Miller came up with.

  Some hoped-for names never arrived. Tom Holland said Pascal had approached him while he filmed Spider-Man: No Way Home. In February 2023, Jeff Sneider of The Ankler reported that a live-action Holland sequence had caused the delay, but Holland ultimately did not appear. Nicolas Cage confirmed in January 2023 that he would not return as Spider-Man Noir.

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• 6. Beats and Brands

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  Daniel Pemberton confirmed in December 2020 that he would return to compose the score. In December 2022, Lord and Miller announced that Metro Boomin would create music for the soundtrack. Guests included 21 Savage, Swae Lee, Lil Wayne, Future, Nas, ASAP Rocky, Lil Uzi Vert and James Blake. Japan received an original song, Realize, performed by Lisa. Dominic Fike's single Mona Lisa came out on the 2nd of June 2023, then disappeared from the deluxe soundtrack edition a few days later. It resurfaced on some versions of his album Sunburn, released on the 7th of July 2023.

  Kaluuya shaped Hobie's voice with music in mind. He searched Spotify for the word Spider-Punk, hoping to find fan-made playlists, and listened to them to gauge the character's energy. He wanted the voice to feel like a song, and the take used in the film had him rapping in a punk style.

  The marketing began early. In May 2020, Sony struck a promotional partnership with the Hyundai Motor Company. A prologue at Comic Con Experience in December 2021 revealed the title and the two-part plan. At CinemaCon in April 2022, Lord, Miller and the directors showed 15 minutes of footage with unfinished animation, and they showed the same footage at the Annecy festival in June with updated animation. A second trailer on the 4th of April 2023 drew 148.6 million views in 24 hours, the most for a second trailer for a Marvel film in that window.

  Tie-ins crowded the weeks before release. Funko Pops were revealed in February 2023. On the 15th of May 2023, Burger King launched a red-bunned Spider-Verse Whopper and a themed sundae. Nike released an Air Jordan 1 High OG inspired by the film on the 20th of May. On the 23rd of May, Epic Games added Miles Morales and Spider-Man 2099 skins to Fortnite, and ZOTAC made limited-edition Spider-Man graphics cards. A week later, on the 30th of May, the film premiered in Los Angeles and Paris.

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• 7. Cuts and Controversies

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  On the 9th of June 2023, Sony sent theaters an updated audio mix after viewers complained about the sound. An official source told Variety the problem affected only a handful of theaters, yet all prints were replaced. At least two versions of the film now exist. In one, a scene between Miguel and Lyla ends with a fist bump, and in another Lyla takes a selfie of them. Associate editor Andy Leviton confirmed the differences.

  Home media brought more changes. The digital release arrived on the 8th of August 2023, and discs followed on the 5th of September. The digital cut removed several lines of dialogue. Miller called it an international version, made to ease translation and to win approval from the French censorship board. He added, "Because it's a multiverse movie, it's like there's a multiverse of the movie." Lord thought some changes improved the film, but parts of the fanbase disagreed.

  In the Middle East and North Africa, a release set for the 22nd of June 2023 was first delayed and later withdrawn. The film briefly shows a transgender flag on a banner in Gwen's bedroom, along with the words Protect Trans Kids. Some viewers read Gwen's story as a transgender allegory, noting the flag's pink, blue and white colors recurring in her scenes. Gwen is never identified as transgender in the film. Others pointed out that those colors already belonged to her look in the comics, so they were not proof of such a reading.

  On the 23rd of June 2023, Vulture reported on a darker side of production. Four people who worked on the film said Lord kept requesting changes to finished animation and wanted early approval of layouts. They said his instructions outranked the directing team and triggered weeks of overtime. They claimed more than 100 artists left before completion. Sony denied the allegations, and Pascal called heavy revision a normal part of the process. After the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, Beyond the Spider-Verse slipped to 2027.

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• 8. Verdict and Sequels

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  Rival studios predicted a $90 million opening, and Sony's own projection from 4,313 theaters was about $80 million. Thursday previews took in $17.35 million, third among animated films behind The Lion King at $23 million and Incredibles 2 at $18.5 million. Friday added $51.7 million, and the film opened to $120.7 million, the second-best debut of 2023 behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie at $146.4 million.

  The film grossed $381.6 million in the United States and Canada and $309.2 million elsewhere, for a worldwide total of $690.8 million. It passed the first film's $384.5 million after 12 days. It became the highest-grossing film from Sony Pictures Animation, overtaking The Smurfs. By July 2023, China had contributed $49.6 million. Deadline put its net profit at $328 million, third on its list of 2023's Most Valuable Blockbusters.

  CinemaScore audiences gave it an A. Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com awarded four stars and likened it to The Dark Knight and The Empire Strikes Back. Kyle Smith of The Wall Street Journal called it visually hypercaffeinated but found the first half slow. Jake Wilson of The Age argued it never stops congratulating viewers for their brand loyalty.

  At the 96th Academy Awards, it was nominated for Best Animated Feature. It won all seven of its Annie Award nominations, and it won Best Animated Feature at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards. The American Film Institute named it one of the ten best films of 2023, and IndieWire ranked it the second greatest animated film of the 21st century. Guillermo del Toro said Spider-Verse will fulfill and heal. Andrew Garfield called it a masterpiece of pure cinema, and the makers of Kung Fu Panda 4 cited the series as inspiration for an inkbrush fight style.

  The film reached Netflix in the United States on the 31st of October 2023 and Disney+ on the 1st of May 2025. A third film, Beyond the Spider-Verse, is set for 2027, with Bob Persichetti and Justin K. Thompson directing. Spin-offs are also in development. Spider-Women has been in development since November 2018, to follow three generations of Spider-characters including Silk and Jess Drew. A Spider-Punk film emerged in August 2025, with Kaluuya co-writing alongside Ajon Singh.

  A manga spin-off, Spider-Man: Octopus Girl, began serialization on Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ on the 20th of June 2023. In it, Doctor Octopus wakes from a coma in the body of a Japanese middle schooler named Otoha Okutamiya. Viz Media licensed it in English as Spider-Man: Octo-Girl, and the series returned on the 4th of December 2025 after ending in January 2025.

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