Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: release date, trailer, cast, plot, and more

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is less than six months away from arriving in theaters. What better time, then, to get a brand-new look at the highly anticipated animated movie?

A year after the film’s first footage debuted, the first official trailer for Across the Spider-Verse has landed online – and, frankly, it looks absolutely amazing (pun intended). There’s a whole host of Spider-People set to debut in the sequel movie, and we can’t wait to see who else Sony is holding back for the superhero film‘s official release. We’ll get into more details on who’s who in our cast section.

Below, you’ll also find more information on the next Spider-Man movie (check out how to watch the Spider-Man movies in order while you’re here). That includes its release date, story details, returning cast members, Across the Spider-Verse’s own sequel, and much more.

Full spoilers follow Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Additionally, possible spoilers for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse are on the way.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse release date

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse arrives in theaters on June 2, 2023. The film was originally supposed to wallcrawl its way into cinemas in April 2022, but its launch was pushed back to October due to the pandemic.

It was delayed for a second time, owing to the fact it needs more work. This is an incredibly ambitious animated flick – over 1,000 people are working on it, according to co-screenwriters and executive producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller (via Deadline) – so everyone needs time to make it as good as possible.

Speaking to Deadline, Lord and Miller said: “We could try to get it out at the original date and it would be fine. But the expectation for this film is it has to be as groundbreaking and special and wonderful as the first one was. So we thought ‘let’s make it great.'”

Elsewhere, hip-hop and trap artist Metro Boomin has been confirmed to be writing music for the movie – Miller revealing as much on Twitter. Here’s hoping Metro Boomin’s other superhero-inspired albums influence Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’s potentially banging soundtrack.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse trailer

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’s first trailer debuted on December 13. And Lord, Miller, and company weren’t joking when they teased just how big this film will be.

The teaser opens on Miles Morales and his mom Rio having a private chat in an undisclosed location. Rio laments how her “little boy” is growing up too fast before delivering an emboldening speech to Miles about how he needs to look after the person inside himself, which Miles agrees to. As Rio speaks, we’re greeted with many multiverse-based sequences, including an incredible amount of other Spider-People from across the, well, Spider-Verse. 

As soon as Miles promises to look after himself, though, the teaser quickly transitions into a fight for his life, with multiple Spider-Men chasing after him and Spider-Man 2099 shouting: “who do you think you are!?”. Cut to Gwen Stacey dramatically saying “we’re supposed to be the good guys”, to which Spider-Man 2099 replies: “we are”.

Obviously, parts of the trailer’s dialog and scenes have been spliced together to throw viewers off the scent about how the film will play out. Still, it makes for truly exciting viewing and we can’t wait to see more ahead of launch.

Missed the first teaser in December 2021? Check it out below:

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse cast

Here’s the confirmed cast list for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse so far:

• Shameik Moore as Miles Morales/Spider-Man
• Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy/Spider-Gwen 
• Oscar Isaac as Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099 
• Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker/Spider-Man 
• Issa Rae as Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman
• Daniel Kaluuya as Hobart ‘Hobie’ Brown/Spider-Punk
• Jason Schwartzmann as Johanthan Ohnn/The Spot
• Bryan Tyree Henry as Jefferson Davis
• Luna Lauren Velez as Rio Morales
• Shea Wigham as Captain George Stacey
• Jorma Taccone as Adrian Toomes/The Vulture
• Greta Lee as Lyla, Spider-Man 2099’s AI assistant
• Rachel Dratch as Miles’ school counselor

Moore, Steinfeld, Johnson, Henry, and Velez will reprise their roles from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Meanwhile, Oscar Isaac will co-star after cameoing in that movie’s post-credits scene. Lee returns as Lyla from that end credits scene, too.

Issa Rae (Insecure, Rap Sh!t) will play Jessica Drew, aka Spider-Woman. During Across the Spider-Verse’s 2022 Annecy Film Festival presentation, Sony revealed that Rae would voice the fan-favorite character, who’ll also be pregnant in the film.

Three other characters were confirmed alongside Rae’s Drew. Shea Wigham (Boardwalk Empire, True Detective) is voicing Captain Stacey, the father of Steinfeld’s Spider-Gwen, in his first-ever voice acting role. Jorma Taccona (The Lonely Island) will play the Earth-65’s version of The Vulture.

Additionally, Jason Schwartzmann (Fargo, Moonrise Kingdom) has been cast as The Spot, aka the movie’s primary antagonist. One of the lesser known Spider-Villains, The Spot – real name Johnathan Ohnn – is a scientist who tried to mimic Marvel superhero Cloak’s superpowers (in the comics, anyway). Unsurprisingly, the experiment goes awry, with Ohnn’s body becoming covered in giant, black spots. However, Ohnn realizes these are portals to other worlds and dimensions and begins using them for nefarious means.

Considering Across the Spider-Verse will continue to explore the Spider-Man multiverse, The Spot seems like the perfect villain. Expect him to pose a big threat to Miles and company. According to co-director Kemp Powers, Valve’s iconic videogame series Portal was a key influence on The Spot’s aesthetic (via IndieWire). Additionally, a new toy leak (thanks to Reddit for the, erm, spot), reveals “If The Spot can realize the true power of his abilities, he could become a threat to entire universe”. Sounds ominous.

Finally, Daniel Kaluuya (Black Panther, Nope) has also been cast as Hobart Brown, aka Spider-Punk in November 2022, while Rachel Dratch (Saturday Night Live) plays an unnamed counselor at Miles’ school.

Potentially massive spoilers for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’s cast follows. Do not read past the tweet below if you’re avoiding spoilers.

Other Spider-People from the previous film should return, incuding Kimiko Glenn’s Peni Parker, Nicholas Cage’s Spider-Man Noir, and John Mulaney’s Spider-Ham. However, they weren’t revealed in the movie’s first trailer.

Meanwhile, Cyborg Spider-Woman and Ben Reilly, aka Scarlet Spider, should also feature. The duo are part of an Across the Spider-Verse puzzle (per Twitter user MCU Campus), so this pretty much confirms they’ll show up, even if they weren’t in the trailer, either.

Revealed during a YouTube Premium trailer afterparty, Phil Lord and Chris Miller also confirmed some other prominent Spider-People who’ll appear. Individuals set to debut in Across the Spider-Verse include Spider-Man India and Peter B. Parker’s child, aka Mayday (thanks to Reddit for the images).

Here are some other Spider-People we picked out of the first trailer:

• Armored Spider-Man
• Bombastic Bag-Man
• Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man (PS4 and PS5 version)
• Spider-Cop
• Spider-Man (PS1 version)
• Spider-Man Unlimited
• Spinneret
• Superior Spider-Man
• Wolf-Spider

Live-action Spider-Man stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Jacob Batalon have expressed interest in appearing. Given that both Lord and Miller have strongly hinted that the upcoming movie could tie into the MCU, their involvement isn’t an outside possibility, either. Speaking to Collider, Lord and Miller declined to comment on the trio cameo-ing, but The Cosmic Circus and CanWeGetSomeToast claim Holland will appear.

Lord and Miller teased the possibility of other Spider-Men alumni in Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield making appearances, too. The duo had supporting roles in Spider-Man: No Way Home but, speaking to Variety (via Fandom), Lord said of those rumors: “It’s a high bar to clear. The gauntlet has been thrown [by Spider-Man: No Way Home]”, before Miller added: “All things are possible in the multiverse.” Watch this space, then.

In total, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse may contain around 240 characters (per Variety). However, Miller has clarified that 95% of these individuals will be background characters, which is what we get in the trailer. Expect the same to be true in the final product.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse plot

Here’s the movie’s official synopsis: “Miles Morales returns for the next chapter of the Oscar-winning Spider-Verse saga, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. 

“After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must redefine what it means to be a hero so he can save the people he loves most.”

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly (EW) after the 2021 teaser, Phil Lord and Chris Miller explained why they made the decision to tell the next chapter in Miles’ arc across two movies. “Miles’ story is an epic,” Miller and Lord said. “We wrote what we thought the story needed to be, and to our surprise we realized it was two movies instead of one. We’re working on them both as we speak.”

Per Empire, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’s story will comprise six main universes – each with their own signature animation style. Two are seen in the 2021 teaser – the Indian-inspired Earth-50101, aka Mumbatten, and Nueva York, which is Spider-Man 2099’s world and based on Syd Mead’s neofuturistic illustrations. We’ll also visit the worlds of Miles (Earth-1610) and Spider-Gwen (Earth-65, which is a watercolor-inspired realm), but the other two are a mystery.

Miller doubled down on exploring other realities with Collider, saying: “The idea that we’d be going to different dimensions really opened up an opportunity artistically to have each world have its own art style, and to be able to push the folks at [Sony Pictures] ImageWorks to develop a way to have each dimension feel like it was drawn by a different artist’s hand. Seeing the development of that stuff is breath taking, and really, it’s the reason we keep doing it, because it’s so hard to get it right.”

Speaking to IndieWire, co-director Joaquim Dos Santos revealed that the team had worked closely with real-life Marvel artists, such as Spider-Man 2099’s creators – including Rick Leonardi and Kris Anka – to bring their work to life. “Comics are the R&D and the foundation for all these franchises,” Dos Santos said. “But oftentimes the creators barely get a mention in the credits, so making sure they’re a part of this is super important.”

Meanwhile, Lord and Miller also hinted that it might tie into the MCU. Speaking on an episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the duo teased that MCU flick Spider-Man: No Way Home could have implications for Miles Morales and Gwen Stacey in their movie.

“The multiverse is big and wide,” Miller said, “And all things grow. Why would you think [that in] a multiverse, in which many things are possible, that [those things are] not related?”

“The writers and director[s] are all buddies of ours, so we sort of have been in the loop as far as what’s going on [in other movies],” Lord said on the same podcast. “And we are always trying to make sure we’re not stepping on each other’s toes and telling different types of stories, and different themes, and all that stuff – because people want an original story that feels new and interesting. It’s our job to give it to them.”

It sounds like Gwen Stacy will have a bigger role to play this time around, too. Not only does she appear to be torn about events that play out in the movie (and the first trailer), co-director Kemp Powers also teased to Total Film: “[This film explores] the unique dilemma of being Gwen Stacy. She’s a vigilante seen as responsible for the death of her world’s Peter Parker. [And] the cop in charge of tracking her down is her father.”

Lord also told IndieWire that The Mitchells versus The Machines (another of Lord and Miller’s animated movies) gave them the confidence to push Across the Spider-Verse’s visuals even further, saying: “It’s been fun to have the confidence, to go even harder and push the medium even further and take Miles [Morales] to places you couldn’t imagine.”

Where The Spot is concerned, co-director Kemp Powers told Cartoon Brew: “From the very beginning, he just seemed like endless potential visually and the arc of the character. His arc really complements the journey of Miles in this film really well.”

Meanwhile, co-directer Justin K Thompson revealed that 17 new tools were created to help The Spot’s various ink-style spots function fluidly. So it sounds like The Spot won’t just be a tragic villain of sorts, but one as visually spectacular as any other aspect of the flick.

It sounds like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will be full of emotional story beats, too. Lord and Miller revealed that there’s one Spider-Gwen scene that’ll really tug at our heartstrings. Based on another of their answers in a tweet above and the plot synopsis, we’ll see Miles grappling with what it truly means to be a Spider-Man in this film as well.

Thompson and Powers also told Cartoon Brew that we’ll see more family-based drama play out between Miles, Gwen, and their respective parents, so maybe you’ll want to bring a pack of tissues with you to your screening next year.

With those official comments out of the way, what can we determine from what we’ve seen of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse?

Potential spoilers follow. You’ve been warned.

Initially, we thought Spider-Man 2099 would be Miles’ new mentor. However, with Peter B. Parker confirmed to return, plus Spider-Man 2099 grappling with Miles in both trailers and seemingly not seeing eye-to-eye with him, they could end up be butting heads. After all, the latest trailer and story synopsis make out that a Spidey civil war is on the way. So maybe Miles and Spider-Man 2099 become the figureheads of each faction, with Gwen caught in the middle.

Is that really the case, though? Speaking during the YouTube Premium trailer afterparty, Phil Lord surprisingly revealed that Spider-Gwen is actually recruited by Spider-Man 2099 to join his Spider-Force/Spider-Society team. Miles, though, doesn’t, and she can’t tell him why. The plot thickens…

As for Spider-Woman, Chris Miller explained her movie look is inspired by a “comic run when she’s pregnant during the Secret Wars”. Could we see elements of that comic book series used in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse? Regardless, Spider-Gwen has a great relationship with Spider-Woman, someone she sees as a mentor figure.

Spider-Woman isn’t the only Spider-Force person that Spider-Gwen is close to. She’ll also have a tight bond with Spider-Punk, with the pair’s penchant for music a particularly cool shared interest. Understandably, Miles is jealous of their friendship.

And what of fans who have been shipping Gwen and Miles since 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse? Can they expect a romance to finally blossom in this film? According to Lord: “It’s… complicated. Long distance relationships are hard”. In short: wait and see.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse sequel

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’s sequel, now called Beyond the Spider-Verse, is expected to land in cinemas on March 29, 2024. Its release date was revealed alongside Across the Spider-Verse’s revised launch date, although Beyond the Spider-Verse’s date could change if it needs additional development time.

Very little is known about Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. Given its title, though, could we see Miles and company make the jump into live-action and potentially appear in the MCU? It would be a hugely crowd pleasing moment if that happened, but we’ll have to wait and see how Across the Spider-Verse ends first.

For more Marvel-based content, check out our Marvel Phase 5 hub. Alternatively, read our ranking of every Spider-Man movie to date.