Big news is coming out of the world of Sony Pictures and the Spider-Universe. No, they haven’t announced a third theatrical release of Morbius. Instead, we have word on two villains for the upcoming Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
The first breaking news is a little more conventional: Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) will face off against the Vulture. According to the announcement at the Annecy Festival, this Vulture will be “an anachronistic version of” the character and is voiced by former SNL writer Jorma Taccone. (Taccone was also the voice of the Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.)
The second announcement is a bit out of left field, but man, I’m excited. Also appearing in the new film is The Spot, an obscure Spidey villain from the 1980s. The Spot has the ability to create temporal wormholes across his body and use them to teleport. He’s the perfect villain to utilize in a film about interdimensional travel and will surely be a plot point to bring all the different Spider-people together.
Seasoned funny actor Jason Schwartzman will voice The Spot. Schwartzman is probably best known for his constant team-ups with director Wes Anderson and would be recognizable to the geek crowd as Gideon Graves from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
During the announcement, the filmmakers noted the unique design they intended for The Spot. Co-director Kemp Powers told the crowd before screening test footage, “We thought it would be really cool if the portals felt like living ink that had spilled or splattered on the comic artist’s drawing. His very simple power provided endless exciting challenges and permutations for our team.”
Despite the deep cut for Across the Spider-Verse, this isn’t the first time The Spot appeared in animated form. He made a single episode appearance back in 1996 on Spider-Man: The Animated Series during the “Sins of the Father” storyline. Despite that, it’s still exciting to see him square off against Miles, Gwen, Miguel, and every other spider-person under the sun.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is the follow-up to the 2018 smash hit Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which focused on the rise of Miles Morales into the role of the web-slinger. The film also featured a variant version of Peter Parker (Peter B. Parker, to be precise) who acted as Miles’s mentor. Into the Spider-Verse also marked the big screen debut of Spider-Gwen, a spider-person from an alternate dimension where Gwen Stacy was given the spider powers.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is slated for a June 2, 2023 release.
