Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a 2023 American animated superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Miles Morales / Spider-Man. Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson from a screenplay by the writing team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and Dave Callaham, it is the sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and the second film in the animated Spider-Verse franchise. Shameik Moore stars as Miles Morales, with Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Karan Soni, Shea Whigham, Greta Lee, Daniel Kaluuya, Mahershala Ali, and Oscar Isaac in supporting roles. In the film, Miles goes on an adventure with Gwen Stacy (Steinfeld) across the multiverse, where he meets a team of Spider-People known as the Spider-Society. It was produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation in association with Marvel Entertainment.
Sony began developing a sequel to Into the Spider-Verse prior to its 2018 release, with the writing and directing team attached. It was set to focus on the relationship between Moore's Miles and Steinfeld's Gwen. The sequel was officially announced in November 2019 and animation work began in June 2020, with a different visual style for each of the six universes visited by the characters. It had a budget of $100–150million, and with a theatrical runtime of 140 minutes, the film was the longest American animated film by runtime at the time of its release.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse premiered at the Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles, California on May 30, 2023, and was released in the United States on June 2, having been delayed from its original April 2022 theatrical release date. Like its predecessor, the film received critical acclaim and it set several box office records, grossing over $690 million at the worldwide box office, surpassing its predecessor and becoming the third-highest-grossing film of the year domestically in the United States, the highest-grossing film produced by Sony Pictures Animation, and the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2023. The American Film Institute named Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse one of the top-ten films of 2023. Among its numerous accolades, it won Best Animated Feature at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards, Annie Awards, and Producers Guild of America Awards, and received nominations for the same category at the Golden Globe Awards, BAFTA Awards, and Academy Awards.
The third film in the trilogy, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, is scheduled for release on June 18, 2027, while two spin-off films, Spider-Women and Spider-Punk, are in development.
Plot
On Earth-65, Spider-Woman Gwen Stacy has become increasingly isolated from her friends and estranged from her father George Stacy. George is hunting Spider-Woman for killing Peter Parker, unaware that it was an accident after Peter turned into the Lizard. Gwen encounters an alternate version of the Vulture, and Miguel O'Hara and Jess Drew arrive through dimensional portals to help neutralize him. George corners Gwen and she reveals her identity to him. He attempts to arrest her before she leaves with Jess and Miguel.
On Earth-1610, 16 months after the destruction of the Alchemax collider, Miles Morales is struggling with his duties as Spider-Man interfering with his personal life and is grounded when he is late to a party celebrating his father Jeff's promotion to police captain. After he runs away with Gwen, his parents extend his punishment. Miles encounters the Spot, an Alchemax scientist whose body was infused with portals during the collider's destruction. The Spot blames Miles for his mutation and reveals that the radioactive spider that gave Miles his powers came from an alternate universe, Earth-42, while the Spot was testing the collider. The Spot unwittingly transports himself into a void and learns to use his portals to traverse other universes and empower himself by using Alchemax colliders in other dimensions. Gwen travels to Miles' dimension and they reconnect, sharing their struggles. Miles attempts to convey his feelings for Gwen, but she fears that a Gwen Stacy falling for Spider-Man never ends well.
Gwen secretly tracks the Spot and opens a portal to the next universe: Earth-50101. Miles discreetly follows Gwen into the portal, and the two team up with Earth-50101's local Spider-Man Pavitr Prabhakar, and later Hobie Brown, against the Spot. The Spot absorbs the power of that dimension's collider, and he and Miles share a vision of his future attacks, which include the deaths of Jeff and Police Inspector Singh, the father of Pavitr's girlfriend Gayatri. The Spot escapes and Miles saves Singh from the collider's destruction, but the world begins to collapse before other Spider-People arrive to contain the damage.
Miles, Gwen, and Hobie are taken to Nueva York in Earth-928, where a multiversal society of Spider-People, known as the Spider-Society, work together to combat multiversal threats. Miles meets Miguel, the leader of the Society, and reunites with Peter B. Parker, who introduces him to his infant daughter, Mayday. Miguel explains to Miles that each Spider-Person's story contains "canon events", such as the death of a police captain close to Spider-Man, which cannot be disrupted; otherwise, that universe may collapse, which in turn could collapse the entire multiverse as a consequence. Miles realizes that the Spot killing Jeff is a canon event.
Miles is imprisoned by Miguel after refusing to abandon Jeff. Miles frees himself with help from Hobie and flees with the Society in pursuit. Miguel corners Miles and reveals that he was never supposed to be Spider-Man; the spider from Earth-42 was not supposed to bite him, resulting in Earth-42 lacking a Spider-Man, the Spot's creation, and the death of Earth-1610's Peter Parker. Miles overpowers Miguel and, with help from Margo Kess, escapes Miguel's universe. Gwen defends Miles and is exiled to her own universe by Miguel.
At home, Gwen and George reconcile when he reveals he has resigned from the force instead of arresting her, preventing his canon event. George gives Gwen a makeshift portal device left for her by Hobie. Gwen travels back to Earth-1610 and searches for Miles, as do members of the Society. Miles tries to reveal his secret identity to his mother Rio, much to her confusion. Miles and Gwen realize that he is on Earth-42, where Miles' late uncle Aaron Davis is alive while Jeff is dead, and New York is crime-ridden due to the lack of a Spider-Man.
Aaron restrains Miles and is joined by Earth-42's counterpart of Miles, the Prowler. As the Spot prepares his attack on Earth-1610's New York, Gwen promises Rio and Jeff of that universe to bring back Miles, and teams up with Peter B., Mayday, Pavitr, Hobie, Margo, Spider-Man Noir, Peni Parker, and Spider-Ham, while Miles prepares to escape.
Voice cast
Shameik Moore as Miles Morales / Spider-Man: A teenager who took over as the Spider-Man of Earth-1610 after the death of his reality's Peter Parker by Kingpin Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy / Spider-Gwen / Spider-Woman: A version of Gwen Stacy who is the Spider-Woman of Earth-65, where she is a wanted fugitive since accidentally killing her reality's Peter Parker who had turned into the Lizard. Brian Tyree Henry as Jefferson Morales (ne Davis): Miles' father and a police officer, who was recently promoted to captain. Lauren Vélez as Rio Morales: Miles' mother, a nurse. Vélez also plays an alternate version of Rio from Earth-42. Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker / Spider-Man: An older Spider-Man from Earth-616B who was a mentor to Miles. He is now married to his reality's Mary Jane "MJ" Watson and has a daughter named Mayday. Jason Schwartzman as Johnathon Ohnn / the Spot: A former scientist from Alchemax-turned-supervillain after an accident, whose body is now covered by interdimensional portals that allow him to travel through space and different universes. The Spot was not originally the film's main antagonist, being dismissed at first by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller when producer Avi Arad suggested using him, but this changed after the potential of his powers was discussed. Issa Rae as Jess Drew / Spider-Woman: A pregnant Spider-Woman from Earth-332 who is Miguel's right-hand and rides a motorcycle. Unlike most Spider-People, Jess does not maintain a secret identity. Karan Soni as Pavitr Prabhakar / Spider-Man India: A version of Spider-Man from Earth-50101 whose wrist bands act as web slingers, and lives in Mumbattan (a portmanteau of Mumbai and Manhattan) Shea Whigham as George Stacy, Gwen's father and a police captain Greta Lee as Lyla, Miguel and the Spider Society's AI assistant Daniel Kaluuya as Hobie Brown / Spider-Punk: A punk rock version of Spider-Man from Earth-138 who uses his guitar as his main weapon Mahershala Ali as Aaron Davis, the Earth-42 version of Miles' deceased uncle (Ali previously voiced the Earth-1610 version of Aaron in the first film) Oscar Isaac as Miguel O'Hara / Spider-Man 2099: A "ninja-vampire" Spider-Man from Earth-928 set in the year 2099, who is the leader of the , a group of Spider-People from alternate universes tasked with protecting the multiverse. Isaac described Miguel as "the one Spider-Man that doesn't have a sense of humor".
Additional voice cast includes: Jorma Taccone as Adriano Tumino / Vulture, a supervillain from an Italian Renaissance-inspired universe, and Jharrel Jerome as Miles G. Morales / Prowler of Earth-42.
Additional iterations of Spider-Man appearing in the film as members of the Spider-Society, with speaking roles, include Andy Samberg as Ben Reilly / Scarlet Spider; Amandla Stenberg as Margo Kess / Spider-Byte, a Spider-Woman remotely operating a virtual avatar from her home reality; Kimiko Glenn as Peni Parker / SP//dr, reprising her role from the first film; Taran Killam as Patrick O'Hara / Web-Slinger; Mike Rianda as Ezekiel Sims / Spider-Therapist; Sofia Barclay as Malala Windsor / Spider-UK, an original incarnation of Spider-UK who wears a hijab; Danielle Perez as Charlotte Webber / Sun-Spider, a fan-created character who uses a wheelchair; and Metro Boomin, who composed music for the film, as Metro Spider-Man.
Iterations of Spider-Man from various media also appearing in the film as members of the Spider Society include Peter Parker / Spider-Man from the television series Spider-Man Unlimited (1999–2001), Nic Novicki as Peter Parker / Lego Spider-Man, Josh Keaton as Peter Parker / Spectacular Spider-Man from the television series The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008–2009), Yuri Lowenthal as Peter Parker / Insomniac Spider-Man from the Marvel's Spider-Man video game series by Insomniac Games, and Peter Parker / Spider-Man from the 1967 animated series, also voiced by Jorma Taccone, which he reprises from the post-credits of Into the Spider-Verse.
Melissa Sturm voices Mary Jane "MJ" Parker, Peter B. Parker's wife and Mayday's mother; Rachel Dratch voices C. Weber, a counselor at Miles' school; and Ziggy Marley voices Lenny, a Jamaican shop owner. Pixar animator and filmmaker Peter Sohn provides the voice for Miles' best friend and roommate Ganke Lee after his dialogue was cut from Into the Spider-Verse. Elizabeth Perkins voices the Aunt May of Gwen's Earth-65; Atsuko Okatsuka voices Yuri Watanabe, a police colleague of Captain Stacy; Ayo Edebiri, Antonia Lentini, and Nicole Delaney voice Gwen's bandmates Glory, Betty and MJ; and Jack Quaid voices the Earth-65 Peter Parker who died after transforming into the Lizard. J. K. Simmons reprises his role as J. Jonah Jameson, voicing various versions of the character on AU Earth-1610, Earth-42, and Earth-65 with archive audio from other Spider-Man media being used for the Lego version on Earth-13122.