During the CinemaCon 2022 Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse panel, the producers revealed some details about the plot and showcased the first fifteen minutes of the film. In that discussion, Across the Spider-Verse, which has now been delayed to a 2023 release, was revealed to have more than two-hundred characters appearing in it.The revelation was directly linked to the production scale of Across The Spider-Verse. The first movie had more than fifteen major characters featured in prominent roles. Given that Across the Spider-Verse will dive into several universes altogether and that the film is a two-part feature in development for a long, constantly being perfected, everyone believed that Sony Pictures and directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson have gone big with the second installment. However, recently, producer Christopher Miller has offered some clarification on the matter, which has spread in the news quite fast.In a recent tweet, Miller revealed that the statement meant that the design team worked on modeling 240 unique characters for the film, including all minor and background characters.

The number didn’t directly refer to the characters directly crucial to the story or are associated with Peter Parker or Miles Morales or any other Spider-Man iteration featured in the comics. Instead, it was to acknowledge the character design and modeling work that went into the movie, making it a production of a grand scale. Miller further added that the film’s primary focus would, of course, be Miles and his family, as well as Gwen Stacy/Spider-Gwen.

To clarify, amidst the universe-hopping there are 240 unique characters that had to be designed and modeled but they’re mostly minor or background characters. The scale is grand, but the story is personal & centers on Miles and his family, along w/ Gwen and a handful of others.

Across The Spider-Verse Still Bigger Than Previous Film

Though the film doesn’t have a gigantic character count, the film's scale is definitely bigger and more ambitious. Firstly, the budget for Across The Spider-Verse is nearly $150 million, a relatively large extension of the $90 million budget of Into The Spider-Verse. The film’s animation and design have further gone into a more complex strategy. Since the film deals with Miles’ adventure into different universes, the creators have opted to have a unique style of animation, art style, and visual effects for each dimension featured in the film. That’s a fair piece of evidence to support the research and hard work that has gone into raising the bar for Across the Spider-Verse.

Moreover, the film is to have several major characters though they may not be in the hundreds. Oscar Isaac’s Miguel O’Hara and Issa Rae’s Spider-Woman are just two of the new characters confirmed to appear alongside the ensemble. However, given the dive into the different dimensions, we never know what other Spider-Man associates and adversaries may appear in the film.

While Into the Spider-Verse was just an introduction to the multiverse of Spider-Man worlds, Across the Spider-Verse will take the characters directly into these alternate dimensions, making the film’s plot and scale larger than ever.

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse is set to release on June 2, 2023. It will be followed by Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, which will release on March 29, 2024.