Prepare for “The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story,” a new Spider-Verse short, seemingly meant to fill the gap between Spider-Man animated movies. Last June, Sony Pictures Animation released the box-office smash “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” a sequel to the beloved Academy Award-winning “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” The second film in the series earned an impressive $690.9 million at the global box office against a budget of $100-150 million, nearly an 80% increase of what its predecessor earned.
If you’ve seen the film, you know it ends on a massive cliffhanger. The hero, Miles Morales, is stuck in an alternate universe where his uncle Aaron is still alive, and his counterpart turns out to be the villainous Prowler. At the same time, Gwen Stacy gathers various Spider-People across the universe to try to find him.
The third film, “Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse,” was initially scheduled to come out this month. However, the film was delayed indefinitely due to the SAG-AFTRA and writers’ strikes that occurred last year. Currently, it has no release date, and it’s unclear if it’ll be ready for 2025.
But there is some good news for fans of this franchise. Perhaps to appease fans, late last week, Sony announced a new short film, “The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story,” centering around the idea of mental health. The short promises to offer viewers a unique journey into Miles’s world, tackling a different kind of foe in anxiety.
Director Jarelle Dampier describes the short as following Morales when he “starts to feel the pressure of his life as Spider-Man, which results in a scary, trippy little jaunt through his subconscious.” Shameik Moore reprises his voice role as Morales and also features the return of Brian Tyree Henry as the voice of Jefferson Davis, Morales’ father.
There is no word on exactly how long the short film is, but fans can expect a nice, compact viewing experience to tide them over as they eagerly await news of the third film in the trilogy.
“The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story” is set to debut exclusively on YouTube tomorrow, March 27, so right on cue, a quick teaser trailer for the short has arrived. Watch it below and prepare for ‘The Spider-Within’ tomorrow.
