According to the producers behind the movie, The Spot won’t be the only person butting heads with Miles Morales’ Spider-Man in the upcoming Across the Spider-Verse.
While Miles had to deal with the likes of Kingpin in his previous adventure, the next person to go up against the hero will be Spot. In the source material, many have never taken the character seriously—he’s also always failed at being seen as one of Spidey’s legitimate villains.
This time around, the character’s abilities (he can make inter-dimensional portals out of thin air) have been upgraded. Now, the once-joke villain poses a huge threat to the entire Multiverse.
Though, he won’t be the only one giving Miles a headache—in fact, it’s another Spider-Person who’ll add some more conflict to the mix.
Second Sony Animated Spider-Verse Antagonist Revealed
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Across the Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller talked about where Miles Morales is at in the new movie while also revealing that there will be two antagonists in the film.
While he’s not technically the movie's villain, Oscar Isaac’s Spider-Man 2099 looks set to be an antagonist of sorts to Miles. Also known as Miguel O’Hara, the new Spider-Variant won’t be seeing eye-to-eye with Miles all that often.
Miller explained how both Miles and Manuel “think that what they’re doing is the right thing:”
"He's not the villain of the movie, but he's sort of an antagonist to Miles because they both think that what they're doing is the right thing.”
When it comes to the other antagonist and the true big bad of the story, that honor goes to Jason Schwartzman’s Spot, someone who the two producers claim to be “a perfect character for animation.”
Lord elaborated on how he loves when the villain is “sort of a dark mirror of the protagonist:”
"I like the villains best when they reflect the journeys of the hero — sort of a dark mirror of the protagonis... And I think Spot's no different. He wants to be seen as legitimate. He's a character that has a silly costume and is not always seen as the top tier of Spider-Man foes, but like all of us, he wants to be taken seriously."
As for Miles Morales himself, Miller confirmed that as a young adult, he is “[spreading] his rings and leaving the nest:”
"As he's growing up, he's trying to figure out how he can go out and see the world and spread his wings and leave the nest… but he also feels rooted to his home and his family. It's that push-pull of your life as a teenager, where you're like, How do I get to be my own person, but also not lose where I came from?"
Who Else Will Miles Face in Across the Spider-Verse?
With the series exploring all sorts of different Spider-People, it was only a matter of time before Miles came across someone who might butt heads with him more than once. But what is it about Miguel’s plans and choices that Miles might disagree with so much?
Could Spider-Man 2099 simply want to kill Spot given the danger he poses to everyone?
It was previously confirmed that Miguel O’Hara is a far more serious Spidey and also leading “a band of fighters” to clean up the collider explosion from the first film. In fact, 2099 probably sees Morales’ actions as highly reckless, causing him to look down on the leading hero.
Just like in the first film, there will be more villains who make some appearances. On top of Kingpin, the original outing also featured an alternate Doc Ock and Scorpion.
This time around, at least one of those baddies will be a version of Vulture from Spider-Woman’s (Jessica Drew) dimension, who can be glimpsed in the latest trailer. There will almost certainly be more surprise appearances in the final movie.
Across the Spider-Verse lands in theaters on June 2, 2023.
