At CinemaCon in Las Vegas Monday night, Sony Pictures trotted out its slate of upcoming movies–and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse got the star treatment with 14-minute presentation of footage from the film. And it was awesome, according to GameSpot Senior Editor Chris Hayner.
Before presenting the lengthy clips, the CinemaCon crowd was greeted by Spider-Verse co-director Kemp Powers, along with stars Shameik Moore (Miles Morales/Spider-Man), Hailee Steinfeld (Gwen Stacy/Spider-Gwen) and Issa Rae (Jessica Drew/Spider-Man). Moore said that it’s been more than a year since the events of the first movie, and that “Miles is still trying to find out how to be a superhero.”
“In this movie, Miles finds out it’s how you wear the mask that makes you a hero,” Moore said.
Rae, meanwhile, noted the difference between her character and those of the other two spider-actors next to her. “She’s not living a double life. This isn’t dress-up for her,” Rae said, referring to the fact that, like Bucky Barnes, Drew was a brainwashed HYDRA operative. The Spider-Woman is her identity in a much deeper way than Spider-Man is for Miles.
Steinfeld, meanwhile, teased that Spider-Verse isn’t just Miles’s story–Gwen has her own story to tell in this movie, and the crowd at CinemaCon was treated to some glimpses at it in the 14-minute presentation of clips.
Without getting too spoiler-y, the footage focuses on the early parts of the film, with Gwen returning to Miles’ world and catching up with her friend–who we learn might have a bit of a crush on her.
Gwen tells Miles that her multiversal adventures didn’t stop–she’s been training under Jessica Drew, who’s part of a cross-dimensional Spider-People society. And maybe she’s not in Miles’ universe just because she wanted to see Miles again–it turns out there’s something, or someone, else that brought her back.
The footage wasn’t all finished yet, GameSpot Senior Editor Chris Hayner said from Las Vegas after seeing the presentation, but it looks fantastic, well in line with the quality of the first movie.
Fortunately, we really don’t have much longer to wait until we can return the the Spider-Verse for ourselves–the film is out on June 2.
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors.
GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.