While being an animated movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which hit the theaters in 2018, focuses on some pretty mature subjects, such as death, loss, and anxiety. The 2023 sequel, Across the Spider-Verse, even manages to get darker than its predecessor, especially with the huge cliffhanger at the end of the movie, which sees Miles being captured by his evil Earth-42 counterpart. The franchise doesn’t shy away from touching more sensitive matters, and that’s exactly why both movies are critically acclaimed by critics, and become valuable lessons for the viewers.
Last Sunday, the teaser trailer for a new Spider-Man short premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, one of the most prestigious events for animated films. The new short revolves around Miles Morales, the Spider-Verse protagonist, dealing his way through a new and realistic adversary: mental health, while also focusing more on his relationship with Jefferson Davis, his father. Let’s see what the new Wall-Crawler short film has in store, and how it can connect to both Spider-Verse movies.
#1. What’s the new short movie’s name?
Source: Cinematic Pro Studio
The new Miles Morales short is named The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story, created by director Jarelle Dampier, and is distributed by Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks' Leading and Empowering New Storytellers (LENS) program. As the name suggests, the movie’s setting will be the familiar Spider-Verse that we know about through the main franchise. However, the public release date for the short is not yet made.
#2. The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story will have Miles facing a brand-new enemy.
Source: Cinematic Pro Studio
Unlike the other films, the new short introduce to us a unique and quite realistic challenge for Miles to defeat: Instead of dealing with physical supervillains like Doc Ock, Kingpin, or The Spot, now he’ll have to face anxiety and mental health. The official synopsis for the short tells us the gist of the story below:
Miles Morales struggles to balance his responsibilities as a teenager, friend, and student while being Brooklyn's only Spider-Man. After a complicated day of living under this pressure, Miles suffers a panic attack that forces him to face his anxiety and teaches him that asking for help can be an act just as courageous as protecting his city.
#3. Why The Spider Within’s take on mental health is a brilliant move from Sony?
Source: Sony Pictures Entertainment
This is actually a very interesting aspect that the studio decides to focus on, as mental health issues are often neglected in the superhero genre. Even the toughest and strongest heroes can have a panic attack on their bad day, and it shows that no matter how strong they can be, they’re just normal humans at heart, who also have to deal with their own psychological problems.
This is especially true for Miles, who’s very strong and has a lot of potential, but he's still a 15-year-old kid at heart, who deals with different challenges of his adolescence years that every teenager must face: friends, school work, love, and parents. Along with his superhero work, it’s a given that the protagonist will break down at one point, and that’s why he needs some consultant from one of his most trusty allies.
#4. The movie will strengthen Miles’s bond with his dad.
Source: Sony Pictures Entertainment
One extremely important aspect of the Spider-Verse movies is the family’s relationship. Throughout his journey, the first thing Miles always thinks about is his parents, who, one way or another, prove to be sturdy ps for him to rely on, even when their ideals clash sometimes. Likewise, while worrying about their son, Jefferson and Rio always show him the care and support he needs.
We’ve seen a lot of wholesome moments between Miles and his father. Jefferson has always been a role model for Miles to look up to, but even a renowned police officer would struggle to bond with his son. We’ll get to see the two interact even more in The Spider Within, as Miles needs to consult his dad about the internal problem he’s facing. The double life as a teen and as a superhero is always hard, but our protagonist will always have his family to support him.
#5. How the short movie will make Across The Spider-Verse’s ending even darker.
Source: Sony Pictures Entertainment
As the synopsis suggests, The Spider Within will delve further into Miles’s relationship with his father, which makes the ending of Across the Spider-Verse even more impactful than ever. At the end of the sequel, Jefferson Davis’s life is in great danger, as the villain Spot, with his newfound power, will wreak havoc on Earth-1610, and as the canon event provided by Miguel O’Hara goes, the newly-appointed captain will give his life to save a civilian in the upcoming attack. Miles is trying to stop it from happening, at the risk of the whole universe will collapse.
As Marvel fans, we have seen this troupe one time too many: a parent dies after they share some wholesome bonding time with their children as part of character development. Therefore, we have a reason to worry about Officer Jefferson’s life in Beyond the Spider-Verse, as his role to Miles will be fulfilled in The Spider Within.
What do you think will happen to Officer Jefferson in the next Spider-Verse movie? Will he be able to escape the foreseen death? Share your ideas in the comment.