The following contains spoilers for the opening of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
A newly unveiled preview of the upcoming Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse confirmed just what caused the multiverse to fracture and a variety of other-dimensional villains to break on through.
During an early cut of the film's first 15 minutes presented by producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller at CinemaCon 2022, via The Wrap, Gwen Stacy is reportedly shown back in her home universe of Earth-65 battling another universe's version of the villainous Vulture. But when Vulture manages to get the better of her, Miguel O'Hara, Spider-Man 2099 -- the futuristic Spider-Man teased in the first Spider-Verse movie during a post-credits scene -- rescues Gwen at the last second. Then, as the two web-heads join forces to take on Vulture together, it's explained that the current tears in the multiverse are actually a side effect caused by the climactic battle of Into the Spider-Verse, which fans will remember centered around preventing Kingpin from using his collider to access parallel universes.
Lord and Miller's presentation at CinemaCon also unveiled new details on how much bigger Across the Spider-Verse will be than the original. "The sequel is way, way bigger than the last one," Miller said. "It’s the largest crew of an animated movie ever." While 2018's Into the Spider-Verse was set in Miles Morales' Earth-1610 and featured a cast of 40, Miller explained that Across the Spider-Verse will explore six different universes and feature a whopping 240 characters.
The producers teased a possible crossover between the animated Spider-Verse and the live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe following the multiverse-shattering events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. "The Multiverse is big and wide. And all things grow..." Miller said during an interview earlier this year." Why would you think a Multiverse, in which many things are possible, that [those things are] not related?" Lord chimed in, joking, "Everything's possible except for this one thing that everyone wants." And with producers also revealing the title of the Across the Spider-Verse, Part Two will be Beyond the Spider-Verse, the potential MCU crossover seems more likely.
Both Spider-Verse sequels were delayed this month, as Sony recently pushed Across the Spider-Verse from the fall of this year to summer 2023, while the third film now has a release date in 2024 despite initially eyeing a 2023 debut. Miller remained optimistic when commenting on the Spider-Verse delay, however, tweeting, "More time to make it great."
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse swings into theaters June 2, 2023. Beyond the Spider-Verse arrives March 29, 2024.
Source: The Wrap