The Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Trailer Offers A Pretty Big Hint About The Film's Villain
The latest trailer for "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is here, and just as expected, it's chock full of hidden details in every frame. In all of the crazy world-building and countless amount of Spider-Men, the trailer is also deeply rooted in the familial relationships of Miles Morales. In an unexpected move for the first trailer to the highly anticipated sequel, Miles' mother, Rio Morales, provides a loving voiceover for the trailer. It's a striking dichotomy to the action-packed and intense imagery of the trailer.
While the dialogue is about Rio wanting Miles to stay true to himself and his beliefs, the trailer's imagery seems to show the consequences of putting those beliefs into action. There has been plenty of speculation about who would follow up the (literally) massive villain that was Liev Schreiber's Kingpin from "Into the Spider-Verse." News had broken earlier this year that the Spot would be a villain in the film. The trailer has now seemingly shown us at least one other driving conflict for the film, along with an unexpected antagonist. While the details of the struggle that will be at the center of "Across the Spider-Verse" are still unknown, it's clear from posters and brief clips released in the past that at least one other prominent Spider-Man will be clashing with Miles in the upcoming film.
A clash of Spider-Man ideals
This first half of the trailer feels like a brief celebration of "Into the Spider-Verse," and viewers are treated to intriguing story details only in the last seconds. Case in point: following the touching voice-over, Miles can be seen desperately evading Spider-People of all shapes and sizes, intercut with dialogue from Oscar Isaac's Spider-Man 2099, named Miguel O'Hara. Spider-Man 2099 has short lines in the trailer, but the way they're edited along with Spider-Gwen's (Hailee Steinfeld) lines that they're "supposed to be the good guys" seems to suggest Miguel is an antagonist in the movie. When paired with the film's marketing at this point, which saw the first clip and poster for the film highlight a struggle between Miles and Miguel, all signs point to him being a bad guy.
This new development teased in the trailer is a far cry from the far less complicated good guys versus bad guy plot of "Into the Spider-Verse." While the interdimensional villain of The Spot will no doubt still play the role of the villain, "Across the Spider-Verse" is seemingly going down a more morally ambiguous path and a clash of Spider-Man ideals. Just as the first film delved deep into how anyone could be Spider-Man, this upcoming film could further explore the different ways Spide characters handle the responsibility of their power. From the intense look at Miguel O'Hara, it's clear he does things differently than Miles Morales would.
A feral and intimidating Spider-Man
The post-credits scene of "Into the Spider-Verse" teased that Miguel O'Hara had created a device that allowed seamless transportation between dimensions. This critical problem drove the film's story. The comedic nature of Miguel attempting to recruit the 1960s cartoon version of Spider-Man was more than just for laughs— it set up that Spider-Man 2099 was building a Spider-Team of his own. In a YouTube Premium exclusive video that dropped after the release of the trailer, producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller talked about how Miguel O'Hara's "Spider-Society" serves as a point of struggle for Miles and his relationship with Gwen Stacy in the film, as Phil Lord says in the video:
"[Spider-Gwen] gets invited to Oscar Isaac's Spider-Society, and Miles doesn't, and [she] sort of can't tell him why."
It's also already been reported that Spider-Man 2099 is a "more feral, futuristic, intimidating" Spider-Man. All the pieces are starting to come together that paint Miguel as a potential villain. All that remains to be seen is if Miguel will see Miles as an enemy for the entirety of the film or if they can find common ground against whatever threat they face in the movie. "Across the Spider-Verse" is shaping to be a film that expounds upon everything from the first movie while also introducing an exciting new idea that not all Spider-Men will get along.