The Villains of SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE Discussed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller

Spider-Man fans seem to be pretty pumped up about the upcoming animated film Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse. Ths last trailer that was released was pretty freakin’ rad, and this movie looks like it’s going to be so much fun!

The movie follows a slightly older teenage Miles Morales as Spider-Man as he juggles the growing pains of teenage life with handling the responsibilities of "great power."

In a recent interview with EW, producer Chris Miller explained: "As he's growing up, he's trying to figure out how he can go out and see the world and spread his wings and leave the nest. But he also feels rooted to his home and his family. It's that push-pull of your life as a teenager, where you're like, How do I get to be my own person, but also not lose where I came from?"

Then he’s “plunged into the multiverse where he joins forces with Gwen Stacy and a new team of Spider-folks to face off with a villain more powerful than anything they have ever encountered.” Once Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, “he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must redefine what it means to be a hero so he can save the people he loves most.”

In the trailers that have been released for the film, we see Spider-Man fighting with Oscar Isaac’s character Miguel O'Hara, a.k.a. Spider-Man 2099, but he’s not the villain of the story. Phil Lord and Chris Miller explain that Miguel and Miles have a lot in common, but they don't always see eye to eye — especially when it concerns the safety of the multiverse.

Miller said: "He's not the villain of the movie, but he's sort of an antagonist to Miles because they both think that what they're doing is the right thing."

The real villain of the story is a character named spot, who is voiced by Jason Schwartzman. This character is able to create portals between different dimensions. He’s not really an A-list comic book villain, but he’s an interesting character that Lord and Miller say is "a perfect character for animation," with abilities “that allow him to bend reality almost like an old Wile E. Coyote cartoon.”

Lord says: "I like the villains best when they reflect the journeys of the hero — sort of a dark mirror of the protagonist. And I think Spot's no different. He wants to be seen as legitimate. He's a character that has a silly costume and is not always seen as the top tier of Spider-Man foes, but like all of us, he wants to be taken seriously."

With all of the craziness that is going to go on in this movie, Lord and Miller go on to stress that Across the Spider-Verse is Miles' story, first and foremost. Lord said: "Even with all the whizzbang parts, we're always trying to look for ways to make them scenes between characters. That's the thing that everybody wants, which is so surprising to me. I never expected the star of [the first] movie to be people talking together in dramatic scenes. But that's the thing that people are most interested in."  

Miller concluded: "Really, the hardest thing is making sure that you've got a story that you care about and that you're emotionally connected to. Without that, you've got nothing."

I’m pretty confident that the creative team behind this movie is going to deliver another great Spider-Man story!