Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is wowing audiences everywhere and has already become a bigger box office success than its predecessor. The Miles Morales sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse tells a more epic story that cannot be contained in one film, which is why it ends on a cliffhanger and will be picking up with the follow-up, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. However, Sony had one other Spider-Verse story up its sleeve. A short from Sony Animation titled, The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story, has just premiered at the Annecy International Film Festival according to Deadline.
The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story is a bold look into the mental health of Miles Morales. In signature Spider-Man characterization, Miles has to deal with the normal stress of being a teenager in today’s world prior to the added difficulties of being a superhero on top of that. The short explores his anxiety as he gets overwhelmed with school, work, exams and relationships. Miles suffers an anxiety attack that is personified “by a dark figure representing his alter ego as well as an imaginary infestation of spiders in his bedroom.”
The short was planned to piggyback off the release of Across the Spider-Verse, but with a box office gross of $225.5 million, it’s a perfect time to release extra material for those who crave more from this world. The short is a product of a “Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks joint mentorship program, ‘Leading and Empowering New Storytellers’ (LENS) aimed at developing talents from under-represented groups.” Jarelle Dampier is at the helm as director of the short from a script penned by Khalla Amazan, and they would collaborate with VFX supervisor Clara Chan, animation supervisor Joe Darko, who would also appear on stage at the Annecy Film Festival, alongside LENS program producer Michelle Raimo Kouyate and program producer David Schulenburg.
The concept of the story actually came to Dampier when he was accepted into the LENS program as a director. Dampier explains, “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 shuts down. I wanted to explore that and to open the door for some healing conversations for everyone.” Dampier also revealed that he hid five easter eggs in the short, one of which is in reference to the spider that bit Miles and gave him his powers. The short is inevitably planned for a wider release, although as of now, no details have been announced.