After Across the Spider-Verse, ‘The Spider Within’ Short Film Reveals Never Before Seen Miles Morales Alter Ego
After the recent success of Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, Sony Pictures Animation debuted The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story on Monday at the Annecy International Film Festival. Because it portrays Miles Morales from a very different angle, the short film has been able to attract a lot of attention.
The public and critics have responded favorably to the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The movie has made more money domestically than the Oscar-winning 2018 original ($225.5M to date).
The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story is a different spin on Miles Morales’ story
The short film The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story centers around Miles Morales played by Shameik Moore’s pressure and challenges, including anxiety which comes with being a teenager and a superhero. The superhero is shown dealing with trying to balance his school and personal life while trying to be a good superhero.
According to Deadline, the short film is also going to cover the importance of a strong father-son relationship, including Jeff Morales, who will help Miles work his way through his fears, which will manifest in the form of a dark figure and an imaginary spider infestation.
Director’s personal experience inspired The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story’s plotline
Director Jarelle Dampier said while the short film was premiering at the Annecy International Film Festival, “In [a] post-pandemic world, I felt like I had a lot of trauma. I think a lot of us did. One of the big things that seemed to kind of bring itself to the surface was anxiety.”
He continued, “The day that I was offered this job to direct this film. I had the largest panic attack I remember in my life. I spent the night in the hospital. I was so excited and happy at the opportunity and yet my whole body shut down. I wanted to explore that and to open the door for some healing conversations for everyone.”
In an interview with The Wrap, the director noted, “I learned that I deal with anxiety. I learned that I deal with insomnia. I learned that sleep paralysis and things like that are all tied to this kind of overactive mental state and not being able to control that snowball that happens.”
The director revealed that he developed the storyline with writer Khalla Amazan and the response that the movie has got is positive and enthusiastic, which makes everyone involved in the project happy and satisfied.
Read this: How Much Did Hailee Steinfeld Earn from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
“Exciting things are coming”: Jarelle Dampier
Director Dampier also went on to point out that there are five hidden references in the short film for the fans to discover about the radioactive Earth-42 spider, which bit Miles Morales, and he got his superpowers. On asking when the short film will be released to the audience, he said that there are no details to share about the wider release of it as of now.
The director, however, mentioned that he is excited to talk about things but maybe not just yet, adding that there are exciting things coming everyone’s way and they will let the fans know about it as soon as possible.
VFX supervisor Clara Chan, animation supervisor Joe Darko, LENS program producer Michelle Raimo Kouyate, and program producer David Schulenburg are also members of the creative team. It is a component of LENS (Leading and Empowering New Storytellers), a new mentorship program from Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks. High-potential candidates from underrepresented groups are given the chance to gain leadership experience through this initiative.
Source: Deadline
