With its final season airing later this year, “Insecure” creator and star Issa Rae is about to exit one universe and enter another. The actress is joining Sony’s Spider-Verse, and Rae will be appearing as a voice-cast member in the animated sequel to “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.” What’s more, Rae will be playing Jessica Drew, aka Spider-Woman, one of the earliest Spider-Man spin-off characters.
The Hollywood Reporter, who breaks the news, also reveals that Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld will be reprising their roles of Miles Morales, aka Spider-Man, and Spider-Gwen, respectively. Though how Spider-Gwen reappears—she returned to her universe at the end of ‘Spider-Verse 1’—is currently unknown.
Plot details are being held under wraps, but the whole conceit of Spider-Verse stories is the multi-verse at work and Spider-People from different dimensions coming together to fight crime and evil. Phil Lord and Chris Miller (“21 Jump Street“) have co-written the script and are back as producers. While they did not direct the first film, their innovative, humorous, post-modern sensibilities were all over the original hit picture. Their co-writer on the project is David Callaham, who wrote Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.”
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Three directors helmed the first film (Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman), and three new ones are being handed the torch on “Spider-Verse 2.”
Joaquim Dos Santos (“Avatar: The Last Airbender”), Kemp Powers (“Soul”), and Justin K. Thompson (production designer on ‘Spider-Verse 1’) are directing the sequel, and Ramsey, one of the original directors, is returning as an executive producer.
Rae is in post-production on the fifth and final season of her successful HBO comedy. She also recently signed a five-year eight-figure deal with Warner Media and will certainly stay within the HBO family for the foreseeable future. One of those projects will be reviving “Project Greenlight” for HBO Max.
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Miguel O’Hara, AKA Spider-Man 2099, voiced by Oscar Isaac at the end of ‘Spider-Verse 1’ in the post-credits, is expected to join the film, but he has not been officially cast. There have been many incarnations of Jessica Drew, but the character first appeared in the comics in 1977. In 2014, Jessica was a key player in a comics Spider-Verse event, and it’s possible the movie could draw inspiration from that storyline.
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Spider-Woman is also said to be the character that Olivia Wilde is directing in live-action for Sony Pictures, but that has yet to be fully confirmed. It’s interesting to note all ‘Spider-Verse 2’ rumors have been off lately. Christopher Daniel Barnes, who voiced Spider-Man/Peter Parker in the ’90s Spider-Man animated cartoon, recently dispelled reports that he would appear in the film, and a recent report “revealing” the entire Spider-Cast of the sequel did not have Jessica Drew listed and now feels even less credible. “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 2” is due in theaters October 7, 2022.