Sony drops first look teaser trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One)

Sony Pictures unveiled a first-look teaser trailer for its upcoming animated sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One) at the Comic-Con Experience in Brazil this weekend. Yep, it’s going to be a two-part sequel to 2018’s critically acclaimed, Oscar-winning blockbuster, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

(Some spoilers for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse below.)

The 2018 film was a mega-hit, grossing over $375 million worldwide against a $90 million budget, and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature—a well-deserved honor. As Ars Technica’s Sam Machkovech wrote in his review, “It’s easily the best comic-nerd film in years to warmly embrace the kinds of viewers who know their comics canon front and back, all without intimidating the inevitable kid and newbie viewers attracted to this incredibly family-friendly adventure.”

Sony began developing the sequel one month before Into the Spider-Verse was released, and soon after, producer Amy Pascal announced that the film would focus on the budding relationship between Miles and Gwen Stacy/Spider-Gwen. The film is directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, all making their feature film directorial debuts.

Writer-producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller told Entertainment Weekly on Saturday that they decided to split the sequel into two separate films, after realizing they just had too much story to tell to squeeze into a single installment. (They’re working on both films simultaneously.) And as we see in this first look trailer, each universe in the multiverse has its own distinct look, designed to suggest they were drawn by a different artist.

Per the official premise:

Miles Morales returns for the next chapter of the Oscar®-winning Spider-Verse saga, an epic adventure that will transport Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man across the Multiverse to join forces with Gwen Stacy and a new team of Spider-People to face off with a villain more powerful than anything they have ever encountered.

The teaser trailer is light on plot specifics, but has some amazing visuals. We open with Miles (Shameik Moore) chillaxing at home—actually, he’s grounded—after successfully saving the multiverse and becoming his world’s Spider-Man. Then Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) unexpectedly opens a portal to pop by, having figured out how to communicate with Miles across dimensions at the end of the first film. I mean, she could have called first so he could clean up his room a bit. But Gwen only teases him a little when she sees Miles’ drawing of her. (“I missed you too.”)

Miles might be grounded but Spider-Man isn’t, so it’s not long before he’s swinging through portal after portal, traveling between multiverses. Just as he’s getting the hang of it, the Spider-Man from 2099, Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac), tumbles out of another portal. (O’Hara made a brief appearance in the end credits of the last movie, arguing with yet another Spider-Man in 1967’s New York City.) It all flashes by pretty quickly, but we do catch a glimpse of Miles swinging through a place called Mumbattan in what seems to be an India-inspired universe. (There are Hindi and Tamil words in the background.)

Jake Johnson will also reprise his role as Peter B. Parker from the first film. Spider-Woman, aka Jessica Drew (Issa Rae) is expected to make an appearance at some point in the two-part sequel, and Takuya Yamashiro, the “Japanese Spider-Man” from the 1978 Spider-Man series is listed among the cast for Part One. As for characters like Kimiko Glenn’s Peni Parker, Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Man Noir, or John Mulaney’s scene-stealing Spider-Ham—well, Lord and Miller would neither confirm nor deny those possible cameos. “Miles will reunite with some old friends and meet… a lot of new ones,” they told EW.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One) is currently slated for theatrical release on October 7, 2022. Part Two is scheduled to drop sometime in 2023. Also in development: a female-centric spinoff Spider-Women film spanning three generations: Gwen Stacy/Spider-Gwen, Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman, and Cindy Moon/Silk.

Listing image by YouTube/Sony Pictures