Last week, at Comic-Con International, Sony showed off more footage from its upcoming animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Though it's been known for months that a Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy from different universes would join Miles Morales in the film, the presentation revealed three more Spiders: Spider-Man Noir, a 1920s interpretation of Peter Parker played by Nicholas Cage in his second superhero role of the year; Peni Parker, who pilots a Spider-Mech suit; and Spider-Ham, a spider who was bitten by a pig (voiced by John Mulaney).
It's doubtful that the amount of Spiders in the film will just end at six when there are so many that would make for good moments or quick cameos; for example, Spider-Man 2099 comes to mind, as does Spider-Punk and Pavitr Prabhakar, the hero of the 2005 Spider-Man: India story. Of the unannounced versions, though, logic dictates that the Spider-Man of the titular PS4 game will make an an appearance as well.
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Marvel and Sony are hoping for a lot from Insomniac's anticipated superhero game. This will be the first full fledged AAA Spider-game in four years, and the first in seven years to be wholly original and not based on a film. This being Spider-Man, of course, Marvel's already announced that the character will have a future beyond his PS4 life. Along with a novel that serves as a prequel before the events of the game, its version of Peter Parker will be making his way over the comics not long after its release. Marvel's "Spidergeddon" comics event will see Spider-heroes from every Marvel universe unite (and in many cases, reunite) to survive, legitimizing this Peter's inclusion. The book's debut issue, "Spidergeddon #0," will debut just a few weeks after the game's Sept. 7 release.
If Sony and Marvel aren't putting the Peter Parker of the Spider-Man game into the film, they definitely should. He's a wholly new entity than the more famous versions of the character before him, one who starts the game having been a hero for nearly a decade and knows how to be a hero, something made abundantly clear through various videos of him traversing New York. If for no other reason, he would be interesting to put in the film to see how he interacts with the Miles, older, mid-40s Peter, and Spider-Gwen after he's become aware that alternate universes exist. Not to mention that he has one of the most visually striking new costumes for Spider-Man in recent memory, with a splash of white prominent in the spider symbol as opposed to the typical red and blue motif.
Everything associated with Spider-Man exists pretty much to promote another Spider-Man thing, and seeing a cartoon version of the Spider-Man from the game would probably get people interested in buying it for Christmas if they hadn't gotten it already. Insomniac has already promised post-game content through the "City Never Sleeps" Initiative that includes story missions and costumes, and it would be surprising if there wasn't something from Spider-Verse added in, depending just on when Insomniac drops each piece of DLC.
Given that Spider-Verse is pulling from every piece of Spider-Man history available, it would be weird if the movie didn't include the hero's future. However the game ultimately shakes out, it may as well be included in a film that looks to open up the Spider-Verse to the kids who didn't even know that such a thing existed...along with getting them to play a game that looks like something truly Spectacular.