When it arrives next fall, it will have been four long years between the monumental, ground-breaking animated hit Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse (reviewed here) and its sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse. So far it looks like it may be the most anticipated film of 2022.
What do we know so far? The negative is that we know it will be divided into two parts. We know Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are back as the writing team. And Shameik Moore is back voicing Miles Morales and Hailee Steinfeld is back as Gwen Stacy aka Spider-Gwen.
Wait no longer–here’s the first trailer from Marvel for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse (Part One):
With winter settling in and another cold snap crossing the U.S. and the film’s nomination for a Best Animated Film Academy Award, audiences are continuing to discover Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in theaters (reviewed earlier here at borg). Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse–The Official Movie Special is a new hardcover book going behind the scenes of the movie, and it has a different twist. The book interviews all three of the film’s directors: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman, who provide different perspectives on working with Phil Lord on the script, and share insight into the pre-production, voice actor recording, and visual effects.
Senior animation supervisor Josh Beveridge recounts the steps of the animation process used for the film, including inkline methodology to make the film look like a comic book, using a large team of animators. Several pages are devoted to each of Miles Morales and his family, Peter B. Parker, Spider-Man Noir, Gwen Stacy, Peter Porker, and Peni Parker and SP//dr–how each was designed, how each was presented to distinguish their different comic book origins using variations in light, color, and dimension, and how each voice actor approached the performance. The villains get coverage, too, including the Prowler, Kingpin, Tombstone, and a new Green Goblin and Doc Ock.
The best look at stills from the film released so far can be found in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse–The Official Movie Special. It also nicely references all the writers and artists that created the various Spider-Verse characters used in the film. It features concept art and production art from production designer Justin K. Thompson, art director Dean Gordon, and creators Jesús Alonzo Iglesias, Seonna Hong, Patrick O’Keefe, Shiyoon Kim, Yashar Kassai, Naveen Selvanathan, Paul Lasaine, and Craig Kellman. Voice actors Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, and Hailee Steinfeld also provide contributions.
Take a look inside at a few pages from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse–The Official Movie Special:
The Christmas movie releases began big this weekend with the first out of the gate: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, an animated superhero movie in a year that has seen the animated Incredibles 2 and live action versions of Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and The Wasp, Deadpool 2, and Venom. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse holds its own against them all. A rich story and layered characters in an easy to digest, familiar, multi-verse story make this rise above other recent animated superhero shows. In-world references to comic books–sporting the main characters on the covers, multi-view panel sequences, and even first-person narrative captions appear pulled from the pages of any real-world Spider-Man book.
The cast list has been publicized for months, and as the trailers promised, the voice actors take the film from good to great. Familiar–maybe over-used–Spidey villain Kingpin, played by Liev Schreiber, is trying to take control of all the multi-verses with a new weapon that initially pulls in Spider-heroes from five other universes. Shameik Moore plays star Miles Morales, a new Spider-Man trying to find his way at the beginning stage of his journey in his universe along with Chris Pine (Star Trek, Jack Ryan, Wonder Woman) as your more familiar neighborhood Spider-Man. After an explosion Miles catches up with another Spider-Man, Peter B. Parker, a view of Parker in another dimension 20 years older, played perfectly (and hilariously) by Jake Johnson(Jurassic World, The Mummy, New Girl). They are soon joined by cool and confident Spider-Woman aka Gwen “Spider-Gwen” Stacy, voiced by Hailee Steinfeld (BumbleBee, True Grit, Ender’s Game). Early scenes present lots of great action, including a memorable scene where Miles drags Peter to safety aboard a speeding commuter train, but this story is more about sentiment and humor. And it gets better.
Three other Spider-heroes arrive. Rounding out the cast previewed in the trailers is Spider-Man Noir, allowing the great Nicolas Cage another superhero role after his performance as Big Daddy in Kick-Ass (after almost starring in a Tim Burton Superman movie years ago). A lifelong comic book connoisseur, Cage was born to portray superheroes, and here his Spider-Man is pure perfection. The oldest of spin-off Spideys emerges with the entrance of Peter Porker aka Spider-Ham (John Mulany), first seen in print back in 1983. And a newer webslinger, the anime heroine Peni Parker from Earth-14512 (Kimiko Glenn), complete with her high-tech “SP//dr Suit,” gets her own great scenes. The film features plenty of surprise characters, too.
Along with a special sneak peek that can be found in theaters at the end of the credits for Marvel’s Venom, a new trailer for the animated Miles Morales Spidey pic Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse has landed this week, revealing some of the key characters fans of the modern comics stories have been waiting for. It has Shameik Moore as Miles, BumbleBee’sHailee Steinfeld as Spider-Gwen, Nicolas Cage as Spider-Man Noir, New Girl’sJake Johnson as Peter Parker, Lily Tomlin as Aunt May, and Liev Schreiber as The Kingpin. And a few other cool surprises.
DC Entertainment’s latest effort, Aquaman, got its own extended trailer this weekend, too, showing more of the story arc with Jason Momoa‘s Arthur Curry and Amber Heard‘s Mera. The CGI sharks are the highlight of this trailer, plus Yahya Abdul-Mateen II‘s Black Manta in action, and the first look at Aquaman in a new costume that more closely matches his classic look.
On the small screen Marvel’s Daredevil is back with its third season this month. Charlie Cox is back as Matt Murdock, with Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Elden Henson as Foggy, and Vincent D’Onofrio returns as the season’s key villain Wilson Fisk.
And in case you missed it, the new Hellboy movie has a new official poster, featuring Stranger Things’David Harbour in the updated prosthetics. And a new wide-angle poster released at New York Comic Con shows a first look at co-stars Milla Jovovich, Daniel Dae Kim, Sasha Lane, and Ian McShane.
