Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse became a milestone for the animation genre in varied ways. The movie is Miles Morales’ first animated outing and was universally appreciated for its visual and design artistry by fans and critics alike. Now the stakes are even higher for the upcoming sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse which will introduce a plethora of new Spider-People along with some familiar ones, and in six different animation styles. In a recent interview with The Wrap, franchise producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller talk about “breaking the pipelines” again.
With Sony’s hotly anticipated sequel Across the Spider-Verse, the duo will try to top their Oscar-winning predecessor. With the 2018 feature, Lord and Miller achieved their goal of making viewers feel like they’ve walked into a comic book the CGI combined with line work, painting, and dots among other comic book techniques, all of which offered an immersive Spider-Verse. Speaking of the sequel, Miller revealed that in the new movie, they were trying to break “the pipelines all over again. But everyone’s excited about it and not just terrified.”
Adding to Miller’s sentiments, Lord described the movie to be “definitely more insane.” Explaining, “We finally made some people nervous. I feel like we’ve done our job.” Miller further explained that there’s a lot of pressure on these films because “you want the movie to deliver an engaging story and an emotional journey. You also want it to be all the things that people are hoping for but then also you need it to be something that people didn’t even know that they wanted.” Certainly, fans are very hyped about Miles’ return, the promotional material revealed so far promises an upside-down world, lots of Spider-People, and a trip across the Spider-Verse, all the while showing Miles trying to navigate the confusion of young adulthood and being a good Spider-Man. Miller said:
“Because the whole idea of these movies is we’re showing you something you’ve never seen before. And if we just did a fun mild story that felt like the first movie, I think it would be a bit disappointing. You want to feel like you’re seeing visuals that you’ve never experienced before. To do all of those things and do them in a way that’s engaging and satisfying is a big challenge but it’s also part of the reason why we do these things. That’s the goal, just to make you laugh and cry and experience something that you’ve never experienced before.”
The movie features Shameik Moore as Miles Morales, Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy, Jason Schwartzman as The Spot, Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker, Oscar Isaac as Spider-Man 2099, Issa Rae as Jessica Drew, and Daniel Kaluuya as Spider-Punk among others.