Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
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Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Produced by
Screenplay by
  • Phil Lord
  • Rodney Rothman
Story byPhil Lord
Based on
Starring
Music byDaniel Pemberton
Edited byRobert Fisher Jr.
Production
companies
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
Running time
117 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$90 million
Box office$655.4 million

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a 2018 American computer-animated superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character Miles Morales / Spider-Man, produced by 20th Century Fox Animation in association with Marvel, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is the first animated feature film in the Spider-Man franchise, and is set in a shared multiverse called the "Spider-Verse", which has alternate universes. The film was directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman from a screenplay by Phil Lord and Rothman, and a story by Lord. It stars the voices of Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, Lily Tomlin, Luna Lauren Velez, John Mulaney, Kimiko Glenn, Nicolas Cage, and Liev Schreiber. In the film, Miles Morales joins other Spider-Men from various dimensions who team up to save New York City from Kingpin.

Plans for an animated Spider-Man film by Lord and Christopher Miller were leaked in 2014 and announced in April 2015. Persichetti, Ramsey and Rothman joined over the next two years, with Moore and Schreiber cast in April 2017. Lord and Miller wanted the film to have a unique style, combining Sony Pictures Imageworks' computer animation pipeline with traditional hand-drawn comic book techniques inspired by the work of Miles Morales co-creator Sara Pichelli. The film required up to 140 animators, the largest crew used by 20th Century Fox Animation. The film was dedicated to the memories of the creators of Spider-Man, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, who both died in 2018.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse had its world premiere at the Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles on December 1, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on December 14. It grossed over $655 million worldwide against a $90 million budget. It received praise for its animation, characters, story, voice acting, humor and soundtrack, and won numerous awards, including Best Animated Feature at the 91st Academy Awards, 46th Annie Awards, and 76th Golden Globe Awards. It was the first non-Disney or Pixar film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature since Rango (2011), as well as the first non-Disney/Pixar film since Happy Feet (2006) to win that award when a Disney or Pixar film was also in contention. A sequel is set to be released on April 8, 2022, and a spin-off is also in development.

Plot[edit | edit source]

Teenager Miles Morales struggles to live up to the expectations of his father, police officer Jefferson Davis, who sees Spider-Man as a menace. Miles transfers to a boarding school, but later sneaks out and goes to his uncle Aaron Davis' apartment. When he takes Miles to an abandoned subway station to paint graffiti, Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider and gains spider-like abilities.

Miles returns to the station to search for the spider and discovers a particle accelerator called "The Super-Collider" built by Kingpin, who hopes to access parallel universes and to bring back his dead family. Miles notices Spider-Man has arrived and is attempting to disable the collider while fighting Kingpin's enforcers, Green Goblin and Prowler. Spider-Man saves Miles and Green Goblin shoves Spider-Man into the collider and causes an explosion that nearly kills him. Wounded, Spider-Man gives Miles a USB drive that will disable the accelerator and warns that the machine could destroy the city if reactivated. Miles watches in horror as Kingpin brutally kills Spider-Man, before fleeing from Prowler.

Miles tries out his newfound abilities in a Spider-Man costume, but damages the USB drive after falling off a building. At Spider-Man's grave, Miles meets Peter B. Parker, an older and worn-down version of Spider-Man from another dimension. Miles inadvertently discovers a power to emit a bio-electric "venom" blast to stun and disable his victim. Peter reluctantly agrees to train Miles in exchange for help stealing data to create a new drive. In Fisk's research facility, Miles discovers he also has the power to turn invisible. They are confronted by scientist Olivia Octavius, who takes DNA samples from Peter and reveals that he will die due to cellular decay if he stays in their dimension too long.

Miles and Peter are rescued by Gwen Stacy, Spider-Woman from another dimension.The group find Peter's aunt, May Parker, who is sheltering more heroes from other dimensions—Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Ham, and Peni Parker—who are also deteriorating. Miles offers to disable the collider so the others can return home, but the heroes tell him he lacks experience. Miles retreats to Aaron's home where he discovers that Aaron is the Prowler. He returns to May's house where Peni has completed the drive; however, he is followed by Kingpin, Prowler, Octavius, Scorpion, and Tombstone, leading to a brawl. Miles flees, but is captured by Aaron and unmasks himself. Unwilling to kill Miles, Aaron is mortally shot by Fisk. Miles flees with Aaron, but Aaron dies of his injuries. Jefferson sees Miles mourning over Aaron and concludes that Spider-Man killed him.

The heroes regroup with Miles in his dorm. Peter restrains Miles with his webs to ensure his safety before heading out with the heroes, choosing to sacrifice himself by staying behind and deactivating the collider. Jefferson arrives outside Miles' door and, assuming he does not want to speak to him, apologizes for his mistakes. Miles masters his powers and goes to Aunt May's where he gains web shooters and repaints Peter's suit. He joins the heroes and helps them defeat Kingpin's enforcers before activating the USB drive and sending them home. Kingpin and Miles fight throughout the collider, attracting Jefferson's attention. As Miles is nearly killed, Jefferson realizes that Spider-Man is not the enemy and encourages him. Miles paralyzes Kingpin with his venom blast and throws him at the kill switch, destroying the collider.

Kingpin and his enforcers are arrested and Jefferson recognizes Spider-Man as a hero. Miles embraces the responsibilities of his new life. Back in their home dimensions, the heroes return to their lives; Peter prepares to fix his relationship with Mary Jane, and Gwen finds a way to contact Miles across dimensions.

In another dimension, Miguel O'Hara (Spider-Man 2099) travels to a 1967 New York and argues with the Spider-Man there.

Cast[edit | edit source]

Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, and Hailee Steinfeld promoting the film at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con.
  • Shameik Moore as Miles Morales / Spider-Man:
    An intelligent yet rebellious teenager of African-American and Puerto Rican descent, who is imbued with spider-like abilities after being bitten by a mutated spider and eventually takes up the mantle of a masked vigilante named "Spider-Man". Producers Lord and Miller described the character as unique among Spider-Men because of his Brooklyn upbringing, half-Puerto Rican and half-African-American background, and the fact that his family is still alive, with that family dynamic being central to the film's story.
  • Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker / Spider-Man:
    Miles's reluctant mentor, a disheveled, jaded and brown-haired 38-year-old counterpart of the hero from another dimension. He is intended to be an amalgamation of all pop culture Spider-Man adaptations and interpretations, and Lord and Miller envisioned him to be like The Karate Kid's Mr. Miyagi, if "Mr. Miyagi doesn't know anything" which they thought was a "really neat color to put onto Peter that we hadn't seen before".
  • Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy / Spider-Woman: A dimension-displaced counterpart of Gwen Stacy with spider-like abilities, who takes up the alias of "Gwanda" while at Miles' school.
  • Mahershala Ali as Aaron Davis / Prowler: Miles's uncle, who moonlights as an enforcer for Wilson Fisk.
  • Brian Tyree Henry as Jefferson Davis:
    Miles's father, a police officer, who initially views Spider-Man as a menace. At the age of 35, Henry had said he was too young to portray a father of a teenager, but agreed to the role after learning that Miles Morales was the only black, Latino Spider-Man.
  • Lily Tomlin as Aunt May: Peter's aunt, who is dead in Peter B. Parker's universe, and provides refuge for the other Spider-People in Miles' universe.
  • Luna Lauren Velez as Rio Morales: Miles's mother, a nurse.
  • Zoë Kravitz as Mary Jane Watson: Peter Parker's widowed wife in Miles' universe and Peter B. Parker's ex-wife in his universe.
  • John Mulaney as Peter Porker / Spider-Ham: An alternate funny animal version of Spider-Man from an anthropomorphic universe, who was once a spider, bitten by a radioactive pig.
  • Kimiko Glenn as Peni Parker / SP//dr:
    A young Japanese-American girl from an alternative anime-like universe who co-pilots a biomechanical suit with a radioactive spider that she shares a telepathic link with. The filmmakers initially considered using Silk as their Asian-American Spider-Man, but eventually settled on Peni because of her more unique power set compared to the other Spider-People. Peni's designs went through a few iterations as her initial design was particularly "iffy" before producer Justin Thompson came up with the idea to portray her in an art style similar to that of Sailor Moon, aside that Phil Lord and Christopher Miller wanted to go full anime in terms of her design.
  • Nicolas Cage as Peter Parker / Spider-Man Noir:
    A dark and monochromatic alternate version of Peter Parker from a 1930s universe. Cage based his character on the films of Humphrey Bogart, specifically the voices of actors from that era such as James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson.
  • Kathryn Hahn as Olivia Octavius / Doctor Octopus: Head scientist and CEO of Alchemax, and scientific adviser to Wilson Fisk.
  • Liev Schreiber as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin: A crime lord and the benefactor of Alchemax in Miles's dimension.

Additional voices for the film include: Chris Pine as Peter Parker / Spider-Man (a younger, blond-haired version from Miles' dimension seen at the beginning of the film), Lake Bell as Vanessa Fisk, Jorma Taccone as Norman Osborn / Green Goblin, Marvin "Krondon" Jones III as Tombstone, Joaquín Cosío as Scorpion, and Post Malone (who contributed to the film's soundtrack) as a bystander in Brooklyn. An archival recording of Cliff Robertson from the 2004 film Spider-Man 2 was used for a flashback scene involving the character Ben Parker. Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee appears in a posthumous cameo, as a character named Stan who sells a Spider-Man costume to Morales. Lord and Miller said it was important to give Lee a bigger moment in the film rather than just a passing cameo, because he was "so integral to the spirit of this movie", and the role was "extra meaningful" following Lee's death in November 2018. Lee also has several brief "Easter egg" cameos throughout the film, such as when he walks over Miles and Peter B. when they are lying on the streets of New York.

Cameos during the film's post-credits include: Oscar Isaac as Miguel O'Hara / Spider-Man 2099, an alternative version of Spider-Man from the Marvel 2099 Imprint; Greta Lee as O'Hara's AI assistant Lyla (respectively credited as Interesting Person #1 and Interesting Person #2); and Jorma Taccone as the Peter Parker / Spider-Man from the 1967 TV series (replacing Paul Soles, with the character being credited as Last Dude). Donald Glover also appears in a background TV screen as Troy Barnes from Community in Spider-Man pajamas. Miles Morales' best friend and roommate Ganke Lee also appears. The character originally had a bigger role but was rewritten due to Spider-Man: Homecoming having a similar character named Ned. Pixar animator Peter Sohn was cast as Ganke before the character was cut from the final film; the filmmakers have since said that Ganke will appear in later films.

Production[edit | edit source]

Development[edit | edit source]

Following the November 2014 leaking of 21st Century Fox projects, corporate statements were released, saying that Fox was planning to "rejuvenate" the Spider-Man franchise by developing an animated comedy film with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Fox executives were set to discuss the project further in a discussion regarding several Spider-Man spin-off films at a summit in January 2015. At the 2015 CinemaCon in April, 20th Century Fox announced that the animated Spider-Man film had a July 20, 2018 release date, and would be produced by Lord and Miller, Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Pascal, with Lord and Miller also writing a treatment for the film. Rothman said that it would "co-exist" with the live-action Spider-Man films, though Fox soon stated that the film would "exist independently of the projects in the live-action Spider-Man universe," as it is set in an alternate universe from those films without the version of Spider-Man as seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

That December, Fox moved the film's release date to December 21, 2018. By June 2016, Lord had written a script for the film, and the studio chose Bob Persichetti to direct. Miller said the film would feel different from previous Spider-Man films, and "will stand on its own as a unique film-going experience." It had also been rumored to focus on the Miles Morales version of Spider-Man, which Fox confirmed at a presentation for its upcoming animated films in January 2017. Peter Ramsey was co-directing the film by that point. The next month, Alex Hirsch was named as a story contributor and Christina Steinberg was announced as having replaced Tolmach as a producer; she previously collaborated with Ramsey on Rise of the Guardians while at DreamWorks Animation. In April 2017, the release date was pushed up one week from December 21, 2018, to December 14, 2018. Lord and Miller announced the title in December and said that multiple Spider-Men would appear in the film. By then, Rodney Rothman, who had previously co-written the screenplay for Lord and Miller's 22 Jump Street (2014), was also co-directing. Lord described directors Ramsey as "the action guy", Rothman as "the comedy guy" and Persichetti as "the poet".

Writing[edit | edit source]

The script is credited to Lord and Rodney Rothman from a story by Lord, making it the first film Lord wrote without Miller. As several Spider-Man films had been made already, the team decided they first needed to decide why this one needed to be made; their answer was to tell the story of Miles Morales, who had yet to appear in a film. Brian Michael Bendis, co-creator of Miles Morales, consulted on the film adaptation. The first full cut of animatics and storyboards for the film was over two-hours long, which is uncommon for animated films, and the directors attributed this mostly to Lord and Miller and their approach of adding as many elements to the film as they could at the outset with the intention of seeing what it could "handle" and then shaping the film from there. They said that the final runtime would be between that and 90 minutes, the standard length of an animated film, with a balance having to be found between the expectations of an animated film that will have a large child-based audience and the requirements of the story which the directors felt was similar to the live-action Spider-Man films especially due to the large number of characters in the film.

The film was originally set to feature a romance between Miles Morales and Spider-Gwen. While the idea was scrapped, Spider-Gwen was still featured prominently in the film, mostly due to the efforts of producer Christina Steinberg, with Lord saying that "Christina kept us honest, [a]s five boys making a movie, it was really good to have another filmmaker there going, 'I don’t think you guys want to do it like this.'" By August 2018, the directors had considered what a potential post-credits scene for the film could be, given that audiences have come to expect them from Marvel films.

Casting[edit | edit source]

Shameik Moore was cast as Morales in April 2017, along with Liev Schreiber as the film's unspecified main villain. A month later, Mahershala Ali and Brian Tyree Henry joined the cast as Morales's uncle Aaron Davis and father Jefferson Davis, respectively. That December, Lord and Miller said that an adult Peter Parker / Spider-Man would appear in the film, as a mentor to Morales. Tobey Maguire, who played Spider-Man in the Sam Raimi films, was initially considered to be cast as this version of Spider-Man, but the option was dropped to not confuse the audience with the idea of the "Spider-Verse". and Jake Johnson was cast in the role in April 2018. It was also announced that the characters Green Goblin, Kingpin, and Prowler would also appear, with their designs based on the Ultimate Marvel comic series.

In June 2018, Fox confirmed further cast additions, including Schreiber as Kingpin, Hailee Steinfeld as Spider-Gwen, Luna Lauren Velez as Morales's mother Rio, and Lily Tomlin as Parker's Aunt May. A month later, Nicolas Cage, John Mulaney and Kimiko Glenn were announced as the voices of Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Ham and Peni Parker, respectively. Chris Pine as the Peter Parker of Miles's universe and Oscar Isaac as Spider-Man 2099 were announced in November 2018. Pine was also involved in Ramsey's previous film, Rise of the Guardians. Lord and Miller explained that the alternate Spider-Man characters were chosen based on the comics they had read as well as research done on the Marvel Comics with the intention of including actual characters from the comics who "were as diverse as possible".

Music and soundtrack[edit | edit source]

Daniel Pemberton was announced as the film's composer in July 2018. A full soundtrack album was released by Interscope Records on December 14, the same day as the film's release, and was curated to represent what a teen like Morales would listen to. Artists on the soundtrack include Juice WRLD, Post Malone, Swae Lee, Nicki Minaj, Ski Mask the Slump God and Lil Wayne and Ty Dolla Sign's "special guest" XXXTentacion. A separate album containing Pemberton's score was released by Fox Classical Records on December 17. On December 20, 20th Century Fox Animation announced an extended play album, A Very Spidey Christmas, based on a throwaway joke at the beginning of the film and consisting of five Christmas songs performed by cast members Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, and Chris Pine. The EP was released on digital platforms the next day.

Animation and design[edit | edit source]

Lord and Miller wanted the film to feel like "you walked inside a comic book", and were excited about telling the story in a way the live-action films couldn't. Persichetti concurred, feeling that animation was the best medium to honor the comics, allowing the production team to adapt 70-year-old comic art techniques for the film's visual language. It took around a year for two animators to create 10 seconds of footage that reflected the producers's vision; the animation work developed from there. During initial development, the directors worked with a single animator to establish the film's look. This number eventually grew to 60 animators during production. It became clear that this would not be enough to complete the film on time, so the crew was expanded further. The number had reached 142 animators by August 2018 and at one point to 177 animators, the largest animation crew that Sony Pictures Imageworks had ever used for a film. Animation work was completed in October 2018.

The CGI animation for the film was combined with "line work and painting and dots and all sorts of comic book techniques" to make it look like it was created by hand, which was described as "a living painting". This was achieved by artists taking rendered frames from the CGI animators and working on top of them in 2D, with the goal of making every frame of the film "look like a comic panel". Lord described this style of animation as "totally revolutionary", and explained that the design combines the in-house style of 20th Century Fox Animation with the "flavor" of comic artists such as Sara Pichelli (who co-created Miles Morales) and Robbi Rodriguez. To make it feel more like a comic book, it was animated without motion blur, instead using an older technique called motion smearing, first seen in the 1942 short The Dover Boys. The frame rate varied between 24 and 12 images per second, the latter using the same image twice. Sometimes the two frame rates would be used in the same scene. And to create a depth of field instead of blurring the background, a new technique was invented, named the misprint style where the colors looks like they have been slightly misprinted on the background. Other methods to make it look more like a comic were halftones and Ben-Day dots to create colors, tones and gradients, crisscrossed lines to create texture and shadows, Kirby Krackle to create the illusion of energy, motion lines to show movement, and onomatopoeia, words on the image, to represent sounds and motion.

Rather than using animation principles like squash and stretch they came up with substitute versions of them; "so that in texture and feel it felt different, but it still achieved the same goal — to either feel weight or anticipation or impact or things like that". Different comic styles were emulated throughout the film for the different characters, with Spider-Gwen's animation based on the designs in her comics, Spider-Man Noir having a black-and-white color scheme, and Spider-Ham being designed as "cartoony" as possible. Former Disney animator Shiyoon Kim served as overall character designer, while Craig Kellman designed the exaggerated look for Spider-Ham. Justin K. Thompson served as production designer after having done so on the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs films for Lord, Miller, and 20th Century Fox Animation. Danny Dimian served as visual effects supervisor after having worked on both the 2002 Spider-Man film and the first Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs film while at Imageworks, and also compared the approach the company took with Spider-Verse to the 2000 film Hollow Man. Animation co-director Patrick O'Keefe said that committing fully to each Spider's unique art style was like "making five movies". In-universe comic-books in the film were designed as a combination of the artwork of Steve Ditko and John Romita. Chris Pine's Peter Parker cover was designed by Keith Pollard, Erik Larsen designed the cover for Jake Johnson's Peter Parker, and Miles Morales co-creator Sara Pichelli, also contributed art for the film.

The directors all felt that the film would be one of the few that audiences actually "need" to watch in 3D due to the immersive nature of the animated world created, and the way that the hand-drawn animation elements created specifically for the film create a unique experience; Persichetti described this experience as a combination of the effects of an old-fashioned hand-drawn multiplane camera and a modern virtual reality environment. One scene in Aaron Davis's apartment includes an image of Donald Glover in the background, which references Glover's part in fan campaigns to see a non-white version of Spider-Man. Glover also portrayed Davis in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Release[edit | edit source]

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was released by 20th Century Fox. In April 2015, Fpx had made its first official announcement that a new animated Spider-Man film was in development, with a scheduled release date for July 20, 2018. It would be the first animated Spider-Man feature film, and would be independent of the timelines of other Spider-Man universe films. At the end of 2015, the release date was changed to December 21, and was moved up by one week two years later. Fox premiered the film at the Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles on December 1, 2018, and included tributes to Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Marketing[edit | edit source]

A thirty-second sizzle reel from the film was shown at a 20th Century Fox Animation presentation in January 2017, revealing that the film focuses on Morales. Scott Mendelson at Forbes said the footage "looked incredible Template:Sic stylized and resembled a cross between an Alex Ross image and a psychedelic [comic] cover", but felt the most significant element of the presentation was the confirmation of Morales, meaning "2018 will offer another comic book superhero movie featuring a hero of color, during the same year as Marvel's Black Panther." A teaser trailer for the film debuted at the 2017 Comic Con Experience, before being released online. Chris Cabin at Collider felt the trailer "looks much better than it ever needed to. The style and design that is on display ... is vibrant and immediately engaging on a visual level, showing a genuine sense of personality to the production." io9's Julie Muncy called the trailer's visual design "elegant" and "fresh", and highlighted the use of music by Vince Staples, which was also used for the Black Panther trailers.

The official trailer for the film was released online at the start of June 2018, and was praised by Chaim Gartenberg of The Verge for its "absolutely gorgeous" art style. He also highlighted the non-Peter Parker Spider-Men appearing in the trailer, Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy. For Cartoon Brew, Amid Amidi praised the trailer for focusing on drama rather than action, and for seemingly targeting "a slightly hipper, more urban, and teen-oriented crowd", feeling that animated films were usually focused on pleasing "all-ages, all-audiences" which marked this film as a "radical change for United States feature animation". Dani Di Placido of Forbes praised the trailer for inspiring interest in the Spider-Man property after several different incarnations of the character had appeared in films. He said it achieved this by leaning into the comic storyline of the Spider-Verse and having multiple versions of the character in one film, and by its "beautifully rendered" visuals that differentiated it from other major animated films. Placido said, "it's nice to see a movie just go nuts and embrace the weirdness of comic books and their eternally shapeshifting storylines." The trailer generated 164 thousand conversations across social media platforms within a day of its release, and in three days had been viewed 44 million times.

Fox released a second trailer for the film in October 2018, ahead of a panel to promote the film at New York Comic Con where the first 35 minutes of the film were shown. Lord and Miller explained that they chose not to show various clips from throughout the film because they would lack context for the audience, so went with an extended sequence for the presentation even though it had some unfinished animation and music. At that time, Fox's film Venom was released in theaters, featuring another extended clip from Into the Spider-Verse as a post-credits scene. The scene confirmed that the shared universe that Venom is part of is one of the universes connected within the "Spider-Verse" multiverse.

In November 2018, Fox launched Spider-Verse Web AR Experience, a mobile augmented reality experience created by 8th Wall and Trigger to run on Amazon Web Services. Inspired by the film, the AR experience allows users to include Spider-Man in photos that they take of their environment. The film also received a $115 million promotional "boost" from various companies—one of the largest such campaigns for a Fox film—including the Ad Council, who included the film's characters in an anti-bullying campaign; McDonald's, with a unique Happy Meal TV spot created in the film's animation style, as well as a special "double height" Happy Meal box for Australian McDonald's locations designed like a skyscraper that the characters can swing from; Synchrony Bank as part of their "Save Like a Hero" campaign; Nike, who sold the Air Jordan shoes that Morales wears in the film; General Mills cereal; official toy lines from Hasbro; themed cruises with Genting Cruise Lines; a "comprehensive" social media-based campaign in China by Tencent QQ, a brand that can be seen in the film; and other technology partners eBay, Vodafone, Garmin, Adobe, and Wacom.

On December 21, 2018, an unlockable costume based on Peter B. Parker’s Spider Suit was added to the 2018 Spider-Man video game on PlayStation 4 to promote the film. Eight days later, on December 29, Fox published the movie’s screenplay online.

Home media[edit | edit source]

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was released on digital download by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on February 26, 2019, with Blu-ray, Ultra HD Blu-ray, and DVD releases following on March 19. All releases were accompanied by a short film featuring Spider-Ham entitled Caught in a Ham. An extended cut called the Alt-Universe Cut, featuring 30 minutes of unreleased footage, including some scenes with Miles's roommate, Ganke, and a deleted cameo with Tom Cruise and James Cameron, are also featured in its home video release. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was also released in Blu-ray 3D format in many regions, not including the United States and United Kingdom.

Reception[edit | edit source]

Box office[edit | edit source]

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse grossed $655.4 million worldwide, against a production budget of $90 million.

In the United States and Canada, Into the Spider-Verse was released on the same weekend as Mortal Engines and The Mule, and was projected to gross $30–35 million from 3,813 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $12.6 million on its first day, including $3.5 million from Thursday night previews, and went on to debut to $35.4 million, finishing first at the box office and marking the best-ever December opening for an animated film. The film made $16.7 million in its second weekend, finishing fourth behind newcomers Aquaman, Bumblebee and Mary Poppins Returns, and then $18.3 million in its third weekend, finishing fourth again. In its fifth weekend the film made $13 million, finishing in fourth for a third straight week. The weekend following its Best Animated Picture win, the film was added to 1,661 theaters (for a total of 2,104) and made $2.1 million, marking a 138% increase from the week before.

Critical response[edit | edit source]

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 97%, based on 369 reviews, with an average rating of 8.77/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse matches bold storytelling with striking animation for a purely enjoyable adventure with heart, humor, and plenty of superhero action." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 50 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 90% overall positive score and an 80% "definite recommend", as well as a rare 5 star rating.

David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a "B+" and called it "hilarious and ultimately even poignant", writing: "An eye-popping and irreverent animated experience from the marvelous comic minds who brought you 21 Jump Street... Into the Spider-Verse is somehow both the nerdiest and most inviting superhero film in a long time; every single frame oozes with fan service..." Oliver Jones of The New York Observer gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars and wrote, "The greatest triumph and biggest surprise of the film is that it is an LSD freak-out on par with 2001: A Space Odyssey." Johnny Oleksinski of The New York Post gave the film a 3.5 rating out of 4, hailing the film as "the best stand-alone film to feature the iconic character so far", and praising Miles's characterization as "more fleshed out than the usual Marvel heroes". Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com praised the film's atmosphere and visual effects, saying the film "has a wonderfully trippy, dreamlike quality about it." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that "...the freshest and most stimulating aspect of the film is the visual style, which unites the expected Marvel mix of 'universes' (it used to be assumed there was only one universe in creation) with animation that looks both computer-driven and hand-drawn, boasts futuristic as well as funky urban elements, moves the 'camera' a lot and brings together a melting pot of mostly amusing new characters."

William Bibbiani of The Wrap felt the film "represents some of the best superhero storytelling on the market", and that it "captures the sprawling interconnectivity of comic-book universes in a way that no other feature film has", calling it the best Spider-Man film since Spider-Man 2. Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times said that "What distinguishes Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in the end is that it takes its mission seriously, even when it's being transparently silly". David Sims of The Atlantic said that the film "somehow, through sheer creative gumption, does something new in the superhero genre", particularly praising the use of comic book's "visual language", as well as the characters' dynamic, and felt that the "anarchic fingerprints" of producers Lord and Miller were "all over the movie". Katie Walsh of Tribune News Service said that the film is "unlike any other superhero or animated film that has come before", comparing the animation to "watching a comic book come to life", and feeling that the film "firmly exists in a post-Deadpool environment, where it seems the only fresh way into a century-old superhero is to skewer the tropes, make fun of the merchandising and acknowledge the cultural significance of it all in a cheeky and self-reflective manner", and that Lord, who wrote the story and co-wrote the screenplay, was "The key to the balance of self-aware and sweet" present in the film.

Industry response[edit | edit source]

Tom Holland, who plays Parker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, praised the film as "one of the coolest films [he has] ever seen," while Holland's MCU co-star Chris Pratt, who also worked with Lord and Miller in The Lego Movie films, called it an "emotionally moving, cutting edge, progressive, diverse, funny, meta, action-packed, silly, visually stunning masterpiece!" Patton Oswalt, who also worked with Lord and Miller on 22 Jump Street, called the film "brilliant" and continued "This has been a non-stop year for me and I'm glad I'm ending it in such a cinematic high-note. Not only is it the best superhero film ever made, it's flat-out a game-changing MOVIE. Seeing it again tomorrow!" Kevin Smith reviewed the film on his podcast Fatman Beyond, stating, "I always liked Spider-Man but this movie made me love Spider-Man on a Batman-type level", and continued saying, "It just goes to show you that any character in the right hands can be a transformative experience." Barry Jenkins, writer and director of the Academy Award-winning film Moonlight which also starred Ali, praised the film calling it "magnificent"; citing it as the best Spider-Man film, one of the best films of 2018, and the best tentpole film since Edge of Tomorrow. Jenkins continued, saying, "I was stupefied. I mean just tremendous, tremendous work, so grounded and full of verve; visceral. Saw it on the biggest screen I could find, just a viscerally enthralling experience. I salute you." Rian Johnson, writer and director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, described the film as "the Velvet Underground of superhero movies" as he believes it will be an influential film.

Accolades[edit | edit source]

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won Best Animated Feature Film at the 76th Golden Globe Awards, it won the same award at the 24th Critics' Choice Awards, and won the Best Animated Feature at the 91st Academy Awards, among several other awards and nominations. It was the first non-Disney or Pixar film to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature since Rango (2011), becoming the 6th non-Disney/Pixar film to win this award.

Critics at New York Magazine listed it at 9 on their list of the best films of the decade.

Future[edit | edit source]

Sequel[edit | edit source]

In August 2018, the directors were still focused on completing the film but acknowledged that the introduction of the Spider-Verse in the film could create the potential for many different stories to be told depending on the success of this film. By the end of November, Fox put a sequel and a spin-off from the film in development due to the "incredible buzz" surrounding it. Joaquim Dos Santos and David Callaham are set to respectively direct and write the sequel, which will continue Miles Morales' story. On November 1, 2019, Fox announced that the sequel will be released on April 8, 2022. In addition to Lord and Miller returning in some capacity, the sequel will feature Takuya Yamashiro, the main character of the Japanese Spider-Man series from 1978—1979.

Spin-offs[edit | edit source]

Spider-Women, a spin-off film focusing on three generations of female Spider-related characters, will include Spider-Gwen and feature Jessica Drew / Spider-Woman and Cindy Moon / Silk.

John Mulaney also expressed interest in a spin-off film starring Spider-Ham, describing the potential plot as a "Watergate-like story" focusing on his character's career as a reporter.

Television series[edit | edit source]

Following the release of Into the Spider-Verse, the studio discussed the possibility of television series featuring the characters. Lord and Miller both expressed interest in seeing a series of shorts starring Spider-Ham, while Fox was announced to be developing animated spin-off TV series focusing on various characters.

By April 2019, Lord and Miller signed a five-year deal with 20th Century Fox Television to create animated Marvel television series alongside 20th Century Fox Animation, including a possible TV series based on Into the Spider-Verse.

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