One of the best Spider-Man films has entered the building.

If you thought No Way Home was good, then let me tell you, Across the Spiderverse is a different level of yes. While for obvious reasons you can’t beat having our three live-action Spider-Men meet on the big screen, Across the Spiderverse did something even more grand, bringing in all the Spider-People and their lore and marrying it with the topic of the Multiverse. And you might be sitting here saying “Katie, they did that in the first movie” and the answer to that is yes, of course, they did. But the difference here was the intensity, the depth, and the importance it might have later in both the MCU and the Sonyverse, which is still running in a weird parallel to the MCU. I will be deep diving into some important topics here in this blog post regarding reactions and the most important parts of the film, but if you want the whole rundown, make sure you go listen to our podcast episode. You can do so by following the button to the podcast page or listening live in the post right now.

Easter Eggs

Let’s start with the most fun part of films like this, and that is the Easter Eggs. Some are very obvious and/or also made an appearance in the trailers, while others were a little less clear but are still fun or important to note. I won’t touch on every single one, but I’ll cover some of the more important/fun ones that popped up.

J. Jonah Jameson

At this point, it wouldn’t be a Spider-Man film without J. Jonah Jameson worming his way into, played once again by his iconic actor: J.K. Simmons. He could be heard and was spotted, in Across the Multiverse, again confirming that he is the same across all universes and that he also hates Spider-People across all universes.

Another Vulture Out of Place

While I’m sure none of you missed the whole first fight sequence with Gwen where she first runs into Miguel, it shouldn’t be too shocking to know Vulture was the villain they were fighting. But the thing that sticks out is that this is now the second Vulture that appears to have been swapped out of his universe into a new one. It could be a coincidence, but considering how many other Spider-Man villains could have graced the screen in this opening fight scene, I’m going to go with it’s not. Something is going on with the Vultures of the Multiverse, so we are just going to have to wait and see what it is.

Donald Glover as Aaron Davis/Prowler

Donald Glover, being as amazing as he is, graced our big screens in this film for one cameo that marries two important storylines. Firstly, for those who don’t remember, he makes an appearance in Spider-Man: Homecoming as Aaron Davis, Miles’ uncle. But additionally, in the first Spiderverse film, Miles’ uncle is the Prowler. Donald’s cameo married these two storylines, bringing the live-action Aaron into the Spiderverse since he is the Prowler in whatever universe he came out of. This leads us to theorize that we are getting closer to Miles being live-action, which has supposedly been greenlit by Sony to do, but it isn’t confirmed how or if it will play into the MCU.

Cameos All Over the Place

In a movie like this one, it can sometimes be hard to place certain callbacks or cameos, just because of how many variants (can I call them that?) Spider-Man has. Yet I say this with a grain of salt, as there were some pretty iconic and important ones to take note of. First, Mrs. Chen from the Venom universe makes a live-action appearance in an interaction with Spot. Continuing the live-action train, we get images of both Andrew and Toby’s Spider-Man films, but not Tom’s… which I have a theory about and will share later. Beyond that, we get some great cameos from different ‘animated’ Spideys including Spectacular Spider-Man and Insomniac Spider-Man. We also sort of get a cameo from the Spider-Man from the PS5 game, which Miles’ friend is playing in his room.

Man in the Chair

Speaking of Miles’ friend from school, Ganke, he makes a reference to Ned from Tom Holland’s Universe by saying to Miles that he isn’t his man in the chair. If you remember, Ned is hyped to be Peter’s man in the chair during Homecoming and gets awkwardly caught during their school dance trying to help Peter.

Lego World Spider-Man

A fun reference we ran into actually pretty early in the movie was when we momentarily entered the Lego universe. This was a fun adventure into of course one of the most famous toy lines which has also had successful movies come from it. Guess we now need to all manifest a Lego Spider-Man film!

Understanding Spot

If you didn’t really know who Spot was before this movie, then you can officially join the club. Out of the massive list of iconic Spidey villains, he doesn’t tend to ring the bell for those who don’t spend a lot of their time focusing on the hero. Yet, he has made quite an impact in this film and clearly in the third film, where it appears that he will play the main antagonist. And this is where I will interject and say that I was totally right about this in the predictions. But let’s not waste any time and get right into Spot.

Obviously, we start the movie with the same attitude Miles does, and that’s that Spot is just the villain of the week. He isn’t very coordinated, unable to even steal from an ATM, and just appears to be a bumbling mess. But we learn something really important about him, and that is that he is not only responsible for the spider that bit Miles but also that when Miles exploded the super-collider in the first film, he inadvertently created Spot. Personally, I loved this, as it added depth to the character and his connection to Spider-Man. There are a few villains of Spidey that are only against him because he tries to stop them from committing a crime, but the ones that have a personal vendetta are always the best.

So let’s table the spider bite conversation for now and focus on the fact Spot essentially absorbed the powers of the super-collider, which is what gives him spots that allow him to move between space (and later universes). Anyone with any knowledge of this will have seen how badly this would have gone and it surely did. Once Spot accidentally kicked himself into himself (I know, you don’t need to say it), he discovers that his abilities span more than just space and time. He eventually uses enough colliders to become a being of dark energy, with the ability to destroy universes like they were nothing. His existence doesn’t pose a threat to just Miles’ universe, although that is definitely first in line, but to every universe out there. This creates the question: does he make it through Beyond the Spiderverse to possibly affect the MCU? Or a follow-up question of does he destroy Miles’ universe, forcing Miles into a new one, maybe that of Earth-199999/616?

The Multiverse in Across the Spiderverse and How it Connects to the MCU

As this movie played around once again in the Multiverse, it left us in a position where we need to try and connect the dots of how this story being told weaves itself into the one we are seeing in the MCU. There is a level in which you could say they’re completely different, but of course, that idea was thrown out the door when Miguel made his reference to Dr. Strange and the nerd from Earth-199999. It means it’s all married together and we need to figure out how, so let’s go one thing at a time.

Starting with canon events, these are events that have to take place in order for the story/timeline to flow properly. In the Spider realm, we were introduced to these as moments such as losing an aunt or uncle or having a police captain die. These are events that not only shape the story, but they shape who the Spider-Person in that story is. We see the outcome of stopping a canon event when Miles interrupts one accidentally and causes one of the universes to begin to unravel.

We were also introduced to anomalies, moments when usually people end up in a position they’re not supposed to be. We saw two big ones play out: one with the Vulture from a different universe breaking into Gwen’s universe and Miles being Spider-Man. We’ll table the second one for a little later, but the idea is that obviously things like the Vulture from a different universe aren’t supposed to just appear in another, causing an anomaly on the timeline. If left unchecked, they can not only wreak havoc but throw the universe off its’ intended route, messing with canon events and leading to the eventual destruction of the universe. So with the background of both of these, it’s time to tackle the question of how does this play into the knowledge we have from the MCU?

I’m going to look at this question by starting at the beginning, with the TVA. The TVA we know prunes individuals who stray from the original timeline story, calling them variants. If a variant makes it too far before being pruned, then a new timeline can be created. We are, of course, assuming timelines and universes are relatively interchangeable at the moment. Ever do a math a problem where you do all the work wrong but still get the answer right? That’s sort of what we think the TVA is operating off of. Pruning variants are important, as variants can also interfere with canon events, stopping them from happening and causing the universe to implode. So yes, variants are bad, just not exactly for the reasoning the TVA believes. By our math, there are three ways we theorize things can go:

1. The first is that if someone travels to another universe and messes general things up, like Wanda when she killed the Illuminati, then that can cause an Incursion.
2. The second is when someone travels to another universe and makes it so a canon event doesn’t happen, like what Miles did in Across the Spiderverse in Mumbattan, then the universe will fall apart.
3. And lastly, if the person whose canon event it is chooses a different choice in that canon event, a new timeline/universe will emerge. This would be what happened with Loki that caused him to be pruned. He made a different choice during a canon event (his arrest after the battle of New York) and would have subsequently caused a new storyline to emerge had the TVA not pruned him.

The only thing that we don’t yet have a theory on is why people like Dr. Strange didn’t ‘glitch’ while being in a different universe, similar to how we saw Miles glitching. Or why Andrew and Tobey’s Spider-Men also seemed fine when visiting Earth-616. We know Miguel provides special watches to keep this from happening, so it may be possible Strange had some magical protection going on that was never addressed for MoM. This doesn’t necessarily solve the Andrew and Tobey issue, but it could be a start. Regardless, using the rules of Across the Spiderverse and marrying them to the current things we know about the MCU, this is our running theory on how it all meshes together to make one big Multiverse.

Coming Next: Beyond the Spiderverse

It’s no secret, even all the way from our predictions, that the ‘final’ installment of this franchise being labeled Beyond the Spiderverse is no accident. Quite frankly, to me, it’s telling us exactly what we need to know, which is Miles will be moving out of the animation aesthetic of the Spiderverse and into live-action. This currently shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, as I mentioned before, as Sony has confirmed they will be making a live-action Miles Morales film in the future. But what should we really expect in Beyond the Spiderverse, past them hitting live-action?

For one, I think there’s a good chance Miles is going to lose either one or both parents. I actually wouldn’t be shocked if he ended up very much like Tom Holland’s Peter, where he’s completely alone in the world. Spot will get his revenge in some way or another and even if Miles manages to save his father from dying initially, there isn’t any way to say that choice doesn’t have drastic repercussions. It might also be possible that Spot simply destroys Miles’ universe, leaving him no choice but to find a new place to live. The issue with this theory is the weird glitching thing that tends to happen, but if he can grab one of those watches from Miguel, he can disappear into the Multiverse.

Since I already mentioned him, I’m putting on the theory table right now that Tom Holland’s Peter Parker will make an appearance at some point or another in Beyond the Spiderverse. He’s the only live-action Spidey we didn’t see and I think that’s because Sony is holding him as their trump card in the final film. Not only do I put all my money behind this, but I actually think Tom’s Spidey might be how Miles ends up in the MCU aka Earth 616 aka Earth 199999.

Otherwise, this conclusion is going to be emotional no matter what. We are not only going to say goodbye to some of these characters, but we might also say goodbye to some permanently in the universe, as it wouldn’t be insanely shocking to see some deaths take place in the finale. At this point, there isn’t a lot more to go off of in order to create some solid theories, so we will stop while we’re ahead. One last nugget of information to share is that Spider-Man: Beyond the Spiderverse will be in theaters, pending no delays, on March 29, 2024.

That’s all we have for our Across the Spiderverse reactions! I hope this has given you some new information or thoughts from the movie that you can take with you to the next one. It will be a hard nine-month wait, but at least we will be being fed by the MCU during most of that time. In fact, get yourself ready for the next MCU project coming our way: Secret Invasion. Our predictions, believe it or not, will be out next week for all of you to listen to, and help prepare yourself for the show, the first episode coming to Disney+ on June 21. As we move into the next piece of content, make sure you’re staying up to date with us and Marvel, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse,” Angela Watercutter, Wired