Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, despite recently getting delayed, is still atop many fans' "most anticipated comic book movie" lists. The Into the Spider-Verse sequel has been years in the making and promises to be even bigger than the first. Writers Christopher Miller and Phil Lord are back, as is much of the cast from the first film, including Shameik Moore as Miles Morales and Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker.
Alongside these familiar faces come a couple of new ones such as Oscar Isaac as Spider-Man 2099 and Issa Rae as Spider-Woman. Still not much is known about Across the Spider-Verse except that it will be the first of two movies to finish off the Spider-Verse trilogy.
Even though Across the Spider-Verse is still months away, the film was making headlines this week as there was talk of over 200 characters appearing in the movie. Well, with that number out in the wild one of the sequel's writers has come forward with a bit of clarification.
An Across the Spider-Verse Correction
After news of over 240 characters being in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse made waves at CinemaCon, one of the sequel's producers, Christopher Miller, responded, making mention that most of these faces will be in the background.
Miller tweeted saying that while "240 unique characters" were "designed and modeled" for the Into the Spider-Verse sequel, "they’re mostly minor or background characters." The renowned writer clarified that "the scale is grand" but "the story is personal," centering on Miles, Gwen, and the Spider-Family:
"To clarify, amidst the universe-hopping there are 240 unique characters that had to be designed and modeled but they’re mostly minor or background characters. The scale is grand, but the story is personal & centers on Miles and his family, along w/ Gwen and a handful of others"
The 240 Character Question
To think that all 240 of these unique characters would be playing an integral part in Across the Spider-Verse's story does seem a little silly. But when hearing that number, fans got excited.
Into the Spider-Verse proved that anything is possible, and with all the Multiverse-hopping that will take place in the sequel, that 240 number felt like it could have been possible. And it still is! Except all 240 will not all be treated equally when it comes to screen time.
One can probably expect at least a third of these to be variants of Spider-Man-related characters. Judging from the trailer, this is going to be an off-the-wall adventure where the group of heroes is popping in and out of reality every few minutes. So, they are likely going to be seeing a lot of webheads along the way, maybe even some familiar ones straight out of live-action (Looking at you Tom, Tobey, and Andrew). But not all of them will get the shine that Miles, Gwen, or Peter will get.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse swings into theaters on its new release date of June 2, 2023.
