Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is set to swing into theaters this weekend, and to the surprise of absolutely no one, all signs are pointing to another home-run for the corner of Sony-produced animated Marvel projects, just like Into the Spider-Verse was before it.
Of course, it’s a whole new ball game for the sequel; audiences will be lining up with respect to the first film’s Academy Award-winning clout, the promise of over 250 unique Spider-People (which may or may not include some MCU cameos if enough fans keep trying to will it into existence) is enough to make anyone at least quasi-giddy, and, most of all, young Miles Morales will be facing the music like never before.
Indeed, Into the Spider-Verse pulled no punches in its depiction of the dark realities faced by anyone who becomes Spider-Man, and Across the Spider-Verse looks all but ready to toss another complicated wrench into that mess. While most of a Spider-Person’s problems tend to manifest as dangerous criminals and dimension-hopping goons, Miles’ position as a teenager living with his parents creates a tricky dynamic all its own.
In an interview with ScreenRant, Brian Tyree Henry and Luna Lauren Vélez – who portray Miles’ father and mother – broke down the intricacies of their son’s and by extension, his family’s struggles with his secret superhero identity, and his not-so-secret teenage identity.
“A lot of sass, a lot of talk back, a lot of secrets. And also, just a lot of reflections of who we were as teenagers. It’s like, ‘Oh, he’s really like…’ But also, to be a teenager at this time, what that is. I don’t envy any of them at all. With the growing pains they’re going through. But also, to walk around with this huge secret of being quite the hero, a savior in his own way.”
They further touched on the role that a child’s identity plays in a parent-child relationship, further pointing out just how debilitating it is for Miles to have to keep his Spider-Man identity hidden away from the world.
“Not being able to tell anybody. It’s becoming a hassle in his normal life. And then to be a parent to that and not know that. I think that that’s a big thing that a lot of parents who see this will relate to is, how does the identity of your child, and trying to find out who they are, and how to nurture that and how to figure that out. What did I do?”
As if Miles’ home life weren’t complicated enough, now he has to contend with a very angry Spider-Man 2099, whose master plan for dealing with the multiverse-threatening Spot isn’t sitting quite right with Miles, all on top of the protagonist’s budding romance with one Gwen Stacy; indeed, being Spider-Man is a lot of things, but easy isn’t one of them.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is due in theaters on June 2.