Now that we’ve seen all the live-action cinematic versions of Spider-Man unite to fight the villains of their past in No Way Home, what’s next for our friendly neighborhood hero? Can anyone top that? With those questions flurrying through the minds of Marvel fans, we can very much look forward to the sequel to Into the Spider-Verse, which is exploring a Spider-Man nemesis we’ve never seen the hero fight before. As we wait for the Sony Animation film, we’ve learned more about its upcoming villain.
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse will follow the beloved 2018 introduction of Miles Morales and many other Spider-heroes to the big screen. The movie, which is breaking its own records by having the largest crew of an animated movie ever, will see Miles go against a rather obscure villain: The Spot. One of the movie’s directors, Joaquim Dos Santos, shared why Spot was chosen for that role. As he said to Cartoon Brew:
Pretty early on we knew the Spot was going to be our main villain. Without an awesome villain who you sort of can understand with their through-line, you don't really have a strong story for your main character. So he's an awesome sort of opposite to Miles.
The Spot debuted in 1984’s Spectacular Spider-Man #97 as a scientist named Dr. Jonathan Ohnn, who was working for Wilson Fisk a.k.a. The Kingpin (the villain of Into the Spider-Verse). While trying to replicate the powers of a superhero called Cloak, he stepped through a dimension called Spotworld, which led him to transform into “The Spot” and gain the ability to travel across distances by conjuring the portals native to Spotworld. The Spot has previously appeared in two animated Spider-Man shows, but never in a major upcoming Marvel movie. Dos Santos expanded on teasing the character with these words:
And his living ink… it's not just an effect. Its artistry comes to life. It's something that can only really happen in animation. You can imagine Spot as a dude in a sock suit in a live-action Spider-Man film, it's not going to work. It's just not going to work. So he is art came to life. He's the inkwell spilled on the page. It all goes back to sort of comic books and comic book art.
As one of the Across the Spider-Verse directors shared, The Spot will be perfect for animation because the character is really married within its origins in comic books and with animated art, rather than live-action. The Spot will be voiced by Jason Schwartzman and has been named Miles’ “most formidable foe yet” following the events of Into The Spider-Verse.
During the interview, Across The Spider-Verse’s Kemp Powers, who is also a director on the movie, shared that the arc of The Spot “compliments” the journey Miles Morales will take in the sequel. He also said the filmmakers felt that the villain had the most potential and storywise to Across the Spider-Verse. Just as Into The Spider-Verse did with its villain, the next movie has picked another character who isn’t obvious for Spider-Man to fight.
Since Across The Spider-Verse’s recent release date was delayed, the movie will be released in theaters on June 2, 2023. You can learn more about the sequel through CinemaBlend’s breakdown of the first 15 minutes of the movie, recently showcased at CinemaCon.
