The 'Secret Weapon' Of The Spider-Verse Movies, According To Director Peter Ramsey
If you've ever wondered why so many superhero movies suddenly seem obsessed with the concept of multiverses these days, from "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" to the upcoming time-travel hijinks of "The Flash," you can thank "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse." Although undeniably a staple of countless comic book storylines in decades past, both Marvel and DC included, it took until the breakthrough success of the animated film and its cavalcade of Spidey-themed characters for everyone to sit up and realize how much potential this mode of storytelling contains.
Few know that better than "Spider-Verse" co-director Peter Ramsey, who (along with Bob Persichetti and Rodney Rothman) helped turn the impossibly complicated and ambitious film into a runaway success — one that almost certainly played a significant role in essentially turning the same concept into live-action with "Spider-Man: No Way Home." /Film's Rafael Motamayor recently had the opportunity to speak with the director in this wide-ranging interview, timed for the release of Ramsey's new Netflix series "Lost Ollie."
In their conversation, the filmmaker addressed the multiversal madness that has sprung up in the wake of "Spider-Verse" and how that might affect ongoing development of the sequel, "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse." His answer is as revealing as it is refreshingly simple.
'A real continuation and deepening of Miles' story'
"Into the Spider-Verse" boasts some unbelievably gorgeous animation ripped right from the pages of the comics, a plethora of entertaining side characters with motivations and interiority of their own, and a killer soundtrack that had audiences humming songs like "Sunflower" for weeks afterward. But above it all, Peter Ramsey singles out one particularly crucial element that drew audiences back to this animated film again and again and again. Although the director has stepped back into an executive producing role for the sequel, he has high hopes for what "Across the Spider-Verse" can accomplish ... provided it follows the same winning formula as the original movie.
According to Ramsey:
"I think the first 'Spider-Verse,' the thing that audiences really fell in love with was Miles. And I think, without saying too much about what's happening in the new one, which is going to be super cool, you're going to see a real continuation and deepening of Miles' story. And I think, just the notion that you're going to see all this fantastical stuff, and there's a lot about the multiverse still to come, but the idea that you're experiencing it with and through Miles, I think, is the secret weapon of the 'Spider-Verse' movies. And as long as they stick to that, it'll be great."
As much otherworldly fun as the multiverse allows storytellers to play around with, here's a great reminder that the best stories are often — at their very core — the simplest, as well. "Spider-Verse" wouldn't work without the attention to detail given to Miles' arc, from a self-doubting underachiever to a full-fledged superhero in his own right.
Be sure to check out Rafael Motamayor's full interview with Ramsey here.