Miles Morales Returns in “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse,” with First Look Sneak Peek Debuting at CinemaCon
It’s been delay after delay for the beloved but slow-moving animated “Spider-Verse” franchise, but Sony finally dropped the first trailer for what will close out the fan-favorite series, at long last.
Last week at CinemaCon, the annual industry exhibition/conference for all things film related, Sony revealed some sneak peek footage of some of the long-awaited final installment in Miles Morales’ “Spider-Verse” trilogy. Of all the exclusive footage shown at CinemaCon, “Beyond the Spider-Verse” received some of the most spirited crowd reactions from the attendees, unsurprisingly so.
When Miles first swung into theaters in “Into the Spider-Verse” back in 2018, it shocked the world with its revolutionary and vibrant animation style and its grounded storyline and character development. Miles returned in 2023 in “Across the Spider-Verse,” which expanded the “Spider-Verse” universe and built upon Miles’ story as the fan-favorite web-slinger – and folks of all ages have been eagerly awaiting the finale to his story ever since, especially since the last movie ended on such a foreboding cliffhanger.
At first, “Beyond the Spider-Verse” was announced to arrive in theaters sometime in 2024. Then the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes began, putting a pause on voice acting work across the industry, halting progress on the film entirely.
The “Spider-Verse” creators (Christopher Miller and Phil Lord) also admitted that the delays at least somewhat hinged on their desire to outdo the commercial and critical successes of the first two films, and in trying to avoid the ‘third movie curse’ that film trilogies often fall victim to – far too many movie franchises that have found massive success with their first two installments wind up falling flat on their face by the third movie.
Lord and Miller revealed that they have reworked and scrapped/replaced several scenes entirely, hoping to perfect the film so that it may live up to the awe of its predecessors. And with the painstakingly meticulous process required in achieving the animated visuals that have driven the success of the “Spider-Verse” films over the years, this has put quite a setback on things.
“Beyond the Spider-Verse” picks up right where the second film left off, with Miles stuck in an alternate dimension, facing off against evil criminal captors – who happen to be this dimension’s versions of his late uncle, and a villainous, alternate-reality version of Miles himself, who has been led down a much different path.
The footage unveiled at CinemaCon showed Miles tied up to a punching bag (which we saw at the end of the last movie) as he’s interrogated by Uncle Aaron and the evil, Prowler version of himself.
Spider-Miles manages to escape and is rescued from the twisted, alternate universe by some of his Spider-friends from the first two movies, setting the stage for what the creators insist will be the “most emotional and spectacular Spider-Verse” film in the franchise.
Miles Morales is currently slated to return to theaters on June 18th, 2027.
