As Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will see Miles Morales encounter all new Spider-People, we have a few we’d love to see!
Over the weekend, Sony Pictures Animation released our first official look at the upcoming animated Spider-Man sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part One. With the teaser writer and producer, Christopher Miller tweeted;
And yes Oscar Isaac returns to the Spider-Verse as Miguel O'Hara, along with @shameikmoore as Miles, @HaileeSteinfeld as Gwen, and a bunch of old friends… and many new ones.
— Christopher Miller (@chrizmillr) December 5, 2021
With the confirmation of many more Spider-heroes joining the roster in the film, it begs the question, who can we expect to see? So let’s go through what could be some of the characters that appear in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Live-Action Spider-Men
Spider-Man: No Way Home seems to be bringing together three generations of live-action Spider-Man films. With that, it sets up an exciting opportunity for the Spider-Verse films where the live-action web-slingers might make their way to animation.
Tom Holland has mentioned a planned cameo in the first film including himself playing an alternate Peter Parker meeting Miles Morales;
“At one point, I was supposed to be in it. Yeah, there was going to be another Peter Parker. It was a scene in a train station or something and it was going to be like an Easter egg. I was gonna walk through the background and say like, ‘Hey, kid!’ or something. Never happened. Heartbroken.”
But back in 2020, Christopher Miller mentioned a pitch for a tag at the end of the first film involving Spider-Ham and the three actors from the live-action films but Sony felt it was too soon to do anything that ambitious. However, amid rumors that Tobey and Andrew could be making their return in No Way Home, Miller tweeted;
Feels like it's no longer "too soon" https://t.co/2uplQqzdRn
— Christopher Miller (@chrizmillr) August 23, 2021
Co-director Rodney Rothman has confirmed he wrote this scene, however, due to a lot of anxiety about the film’s reception it was ultimately turned down;
“I don’t want to get into it, but I did write that scene with all three. But there’s a lot of anxiety, there’s a lot of anxiety around the movie generally and there was anxiety about confusing people.”
It was a valid concern in the first film, with the ambitious art and animation style along with a bonkers story surrounding alternate Spider-Men saving the multiverse. Throwing in three more characters that have their franchises might’ve been a bit much. But now that the first film has been out for a few years and No Way Home seems to be uniting the three, it doesn’t seem far-fetched that we’ll be seeing them all again in Across the Spider-Verse.
Spider-Woman
Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman, is a big character in the comics but has yet to make her debut in a film. She’s been an Avenger, a Skrull, and an Agent of SHIELD and HYDRA. Her presence in the comics is a pretty big one, especially in the mid-2000s where her role in The Avengers made her a lead character in the comic.
Her inclusion would be a welcome one, and an interesting contrast to the others with her unique power set only very loosely connected to Spiders. After fatal exposure to uranium, her scientist father injected her with a serum based on irradiated spider blood. As a result, she developed many abilities including flight, energy blasts, super strength, and wall-crawling.
While official confirmation of any kind is yet to be released, in June of 2021 The Hollywood Reporter claimed the character has been cast in the film with Issa Rae playing the role. Jessica Drew is a big character in the comics, as I said, so it feels likely that she will be one of the more prevalent roles in the sequel in a similar capacity to some of the ensemble in the first film.
Insomniac’s Spider-Men
The popular PlayStation exclusive Spider-Man games have become their definitive adaptations in a period of only a few years, with anticipation high for Spider-Man 2. The first game was released in 2018, the same year as Into the Spider-Verse, and we got our first hint at the potential crossover in that film.
When the film’s group of Spider-People assemble in a “Spider-Cave”, there is a row of various Spider-Man costumes referencing multiple iterations of the character. One of which is the memorable and distinctive look of Insomniac’s advanced suit with the signature white logo. After the most recent game, we also have a full-fledged Miles Morales Spider-Man in the Insomniac universe. So crossing over with the game could provide a neat pair of Spider-Men to the film’s ensemble, with voice actors Yuri Lowenthal and Nadji Jeter already cast.
While the suit was just a fun easter egg at the time, the popularity of the games makes Insomniac’s version of the web-slingers a great choice to join the multiversal adventure.
Japanese Spider-Man
In 1978 Toei, the company responsible for Japanese animated classics like Sailor Moon, Digimon, and Dragon Ball, produced their adaptation of Spider-Man. The depiction became a cult classic and garnered admiration even from Stan Lee due to its ambition to do something different. Most recently, the version made an appearance in the comic event Spider-Geddon.
In 2019 a fan tweeted writer and producer, Phil Lord, regarding the potential inclusion of this version of the character in a sequel. With this Lord confirmed the character has been designed, potentially confirming his inclusion:
He’s designed!
— Phil Lord y Betancourt (@philiplord) November 5, 2019
This version of the character featured the recognizable red and blue costume but ended with its similarities there. Rather than scientist and photographer Peter Parker in the lead, the series focused on motorcycle racer Takuya Yamashiro.
When he witnessed a UFO crash, Takuya gained superpowers from the survivor of the downed craft. He also gained a high-tech bracelet that can transform into a giant robot, one of the earliest depictions of transforming robots that the producers utilized significantly in toy merchandising; even pre-dating Transformers.
The Disney+ series, Marvel 616 has a whole episode that delves into the series I highly recommend.
Despite the mixed reception, the series had a big influence on a lot of children’s television going forward. The giant piloted mech and transforming robot inspired iconic franchises like Power Rangers and Transformers, seeing the return of that iteration of the character would be nothing less than pure fun.
Ben Reilly
The Spider-Man Clone Saga storyline is iconic and memorable for how messy, long, and bad it was. However, the storyline led to the creation of some comic book fan favorites, the biggest of which is likely Ben Reilly.
Ben Reilly is a clone of Peter Parker who similarly pursued a life of crime-fighting as Spider-Man for a brief period in the ’90s. More often, he is known as the Scarlet Spider. His costume has become a favorite and even got featured in the 2018 Spider-Man game.
Most recently in the comics, Ben has returned to the Spider-Man mantle with an updated look to his 90s Spidey costume, a large black Spider sprawled across the chest of the classic blue and red look. Perhaps a Ben from a reality where his Peter is no longer Spider-Man might join the fight in Across the Spider-Verse.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part One promises to have a massive cast of heroes to don the mask and I’m sure there are many that I’ve failed to mention here but we’ll only learn of more as the film get’s closer.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse releases October 7th, 2022.
