Why Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Got Split Into Two Movies

Breathe easy, Spider-fans. After 2018's "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" came out of nowhere to shatter expectations and breathe new life into superhero movies, audiences anxiously waited to see if and when a sequel would be given the green light and, most importantly, if it could possibly live up to the standard set by the first animated movie. Well, those concerns seem to have been put to rest, if the reactions and reviews for "Across the Spider-Verse" are anything to go by. (You can read /Film's review by Chris Evangelista right here.)

But there's one common element that practically all the early reactions for the highly-anticipated "Spider-Man" movie have gone out of their way to note: it apparently ends on a rather significant cliffhanger. In contrast, "Into the Spider-Verse" told a very self-contained story that wrapped up to satisfaction in less than two hours. As it turns out, however, the filmmakers and the studio had much bigger ambitions for the next go-around. Word eventually came down that the sequel would actually be told in two parts, with the first of these installments now titled "Across the Spider-Verse." And there's a very good reason why this decision was made.

In a recent interview with IGN, "Spider-Verse" writer and producer Chris Miller explained:

"For a long time, we were trying to jam two movies into one, and then we realized the movie was telling us this was a whole complete arc of a story and this really was the second part of the trilogy, and so it just made a lot more sense then. [...] Because it has a beginning and middle and end for all the characters, they all grow and they all have an arc. It felt like this is where the movie was telling us this is its own thing."

There's a fine art to making the middle movie of an entire trilogy. It may feel like a cliché to go back to that "The Empire Strikes Back" handbook that seems to dictate darker stories, a legendary villain, and a cliffhanger ending, but some tropes are tropes for a reason — they work! We're about to find out for ourselves just how effective this approach will be for "Across the Spider-Verse," though that's not to say that this didn't give the filmmakers plenty of sleepless nights while making the sequel. Directors Justin K. Thompson, Joaquim Dos Santos, and Kemp Powers all stepped in for the previous creative team on "Into the Spider-Verse," which featured the trio of Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman.

In the same interview, Thompson went on to describe the nerves he felt when given the task of turning "Across the Spider-Verse" into a two-part extravaganza. To his credit, he seems well aware of all the pitfalls of such a decision:

"I think it was just probably nerve-wracking to think, 'I hope we can make this feel like a complete film.' [...] And it wasn't so much like, 'Hey, they split in two.' It was more like we needed to be certain by the time this film came out that it was its own film and could stand alone and was a complete story, but still had enough of a question that was unanswered to make audiences want to see the next part."

Based on early tracking, it sure seems like audiences are going to be hungry for more of Miles Morales for years to come — cliffhanger or not. "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" swings into theaters June 2, 2023.