‘Across the Spider-Verse’ Has Tons of New Spider-People—Including One Voiced By Issa Rae

It won’t be long before the sequel to Marvel’s best movie hits a theater near you. Ever since the runaway success of 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, fans of the animated take on the web-slinging hero (well, technically, in this case, heroes) have been clamoring for an inevitable sequel. We’re about six months away from actually watching it, as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has a June 2, 2023 release date. Today, the first trailer for the film has debuted.

In the trailer, we see the same beautiful animation we’ve come to love and a blossoming romance between Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and Gwen Stacey (Hailee Steinfeld). There’s also a whole lot of Spider-People, many more than seen in the original film. This includes a first look at Jessica Drew, a cool, motorcycle-riding, Afro-sporting Spider-Woman voiced by Issa Rae, who conjures the image of Cleopatra Jones; and Hobart “Hobie” Brown a.k.a. Spider-Punk, voiced by Daniel Kaluuya.

According to Christopher Miller, one of the film’s producers, the scale of this sequel is going to be massive. Two-hundred and forty characters, most of them minor or background, will be introduced, and the action will take place across six different universes. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will see Miles and Gwen at odds with dozens of other Spiders, fighting one another and a villain more powerful than anything they've seen before.

Most of the production team from the original is still around, but there’s a new addition to get excited about. Kemp Powers, who wrote the One Night in Miami play and its feature film adaptation, will serve as a co-director along with Joaquim Dos Santos and Justin K. Thompson. Powers also co-directed Soul, which made him the first Black person to co-direct a Disney animated feature film (not Thomas Washington, contrary to Darius’ imagination).

We probably won't have to wait another four years for the next chapter. The third installment of this series, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, is slated to drop on March 29, 2024. Peep the trailer for Across the Spider-Verse below.