Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse writer and producer Christopher Miller has talked the film up by describing parallels between it and a beloved Star Wars sequel. The comment comes after the film received positive responses in early screenings.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is the follow-up animated feature to 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which introduced several people to Miles Morales, a young graffiti artist from Earth-1610 who inherits the mantle of Spider-Man after his world's Peter Parker dies. The film was a massive success and helped bring a character into the mainstream who had been featured heavily in comics for seven years prior. Miles has since exploded in mainstream popularity in recent years and seen integration in all sorts of media, including a stellar video game adaptation that ranks at the top of the Marvel video game tier list.
With another movie focused on the character on the verge of release, favorable comparisons are being made to another well-loved story. Speaking to (coincidentally) Empire about Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the film’s scribe and producer Miller commented, “People who’ve seen Across… have told us that it feels like The Empire Strikes Back of the Spider-Verse franchise. It shows you worlds you haven’t seen, and it’s an emotional story that ends in a place where you need to see the third one. So, yeah: this is our ‘Empire.’” This is high praise of the most prestigious sort, as many people maintain that The Empire Strikes Back is the best film in the Star Wars franchise, which sits atop all other science fiction.
Kemp Powers, the director of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, had comments that show more parallels between Miles' journey and that of Luke Skywalker. “Miles thought he’d never see his friends again,” Powers points out. “But in this sequel, he reconnects with Gwen and discovers she’s part of a group of Spider-People whose mission is to protect the Multiverse. From there, he ends up on this adventure to different worlds.” One world that fans might be eager for the young Spider-Man to explore is the live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe, currently inhabited by Tom Holland's successful take on Peter Parker. This outcome is likely inevitable as the franchise marches ever onward, and insiders like Morbius director Daniel Espinosa promise that Miles Morales will join the mainline MCU continuity.
It might be a while before Miles shines in the live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe. Kevin Feige has revealed that Tom Holland's Spider-Man 4 already has its story set with no mention yet of a crossover or multiverse theme. In the meantime, Miles still has at least one animated adventure left in the tank, with a third film titled Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse underway and eyeing a 2024 release. Following the trilogy tradition of Spider-Man features, the next film will likely be the last in the series, creating a healthy path to discussing a live-action Miles in Phase 6 of the MCU.
The addition of Miles to the MCU will likely do wonders, seeing that even as the rest of the MCU suffers from a general trend of seeming superhero fatigue, Miles Morales and company seem strangely immune to the whole thing, as interest in the animated feature and its sequel is trending up rather than down. While a large part of this is the fresh appeal that MIles brings, the same can also be said about other solo Spider-Man projects, including the successful video game series, which has been popular at a time when other Marvel video games haven't found nearly the same success as the MCU films.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will premiere in theaters on June 2, 2023.
Source: Empire