While Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse stands pretty well by itself, it looks like the follow-up, Across the Spider-Verse, is going to be the first part of a bigger story.
Talking to Empire, producer Chris Miller explains how Across will be the Empire Strikes Back of the Spider-Verse franchise. He explains:
“People who’ve seen Across… have told us that it feels like The Empire Strikes Back of the Spider-Verse franchise… It shows you worlds you haven’t seen, and it’s an emotional story that ends in a place where you need to see the third one. So, yeah: this is our Empire.”
We don’t know exactly where the story is expected to end, but if you’ve seen ESB, you’ll know that it notoriously has a dark ending, what with Luke Skywalker losing his hand and Han Solo being frozen in Carbonite.
So far, Spider-Verse seems to be clear with the ramifications of opening up a multiverse, with Miles and Gwen finding themselves in the middle of a ‘Spider-Verse war’ going head-to-head with Spider-Man 2099 Miguel O’Hara. With Tom Holland’s Spider-Man being broken down to rock bottom with No Way Home, I’m eager to watch Miles Morales undergo some serious story moments in his own franchise.
Hopefully they can set up Miles for live-action in the future, but so far, his characterization in the Spider-Verse films have been fantastic. He isn’t Peter Parker, but he’s definitely his own Spider-Man.
Catch Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse when it comes to cinemas on June 2.
