The Oscar-winning animated film "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" was a huge success with audiences and critics alike. The sequel "Across the Spider-Verse" then kicked it up a notch in 2023. The third part, "Beyond the Spider-Verse", is set to bring the series about Miles Morales to a close - yet the project is currently ill-fated. In this article, we take a look at what awaits us in the finale and what is currently known about the state of production. Of course, this comes with a spoiler alert regarding the story of the second part!

Plot

Miles Morales Fights Against Himself

"Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse" will seamlessly pick up where the second movie left off. After all, it ended with a big cliffhanger and was originally called "Across the Spider-Verse: Part One". Of course, Miles Morales is still the focus of the story. At the end of the second movie, he is stuck on Earth-42 - a dark world without Spider-Man. Instead, there is his doppelganger Miles G. Morales, better known as the villain Prowler. Facing this enemy fits in very well with the story so far: Miles must literally confront his dark side, his own fears and weaknesses and surpass himself. Only then can he take care of the people he loves.

Spot Threatens the Spider-Verse

And they are in great danger: after all, the villain Spot, who has Miles' father Jefferson Davis in his sights, must be stopped. The former "Villain of the Week" now sees himself as Spider-Man's archenemy and is out for revenge. Having managed to travel through different dimensions and increase his power through particle accelerator explosions, he has now grown into a major threat.

Gwen Stacy and her newly formed Spider-team will do everything they can to save Miles, their families and dimensions without endangering the Spider-Verse. After all, Gwen's world is also in danger due to the fact that her father is still alive.

Spider-Man 2099: Friend or Foe?

There is a big mystery surrounding the character of Miguel O'Hara aka Spider-Man 2099: he surprisingly went on to become the antagonist in part 2, as he couldn't accept Miles changing the supposedly necessary, tragic fate of the Spider-people. Miles and his friends therefore not only have to defeat the obvious bad guys, but also fight out a deep conflict with their own people. This point in particular makes Part 3 especially exciting, as there is no easy solution to be foreseen here. Perhaps in the end Miles learns that loss is part of life and that you have to be able to let go. But Miguel could also be convinced that you should never give up on doing the right thing - no matter how great the risk may seem.

Are Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy a Couple?

Apart from the big challenges, we are also expecting some smaller, exciting moments: we will probably finally see Miles reveal himself to his parents as Spider-Man. We also assume that the relationship between Gwen and Miles will intensify. The filmmakers have often emphasized that the two are meant to have a love story, even if the topic has been deliberately left in limbo in the comic original so far.

The Theatrical Release of Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse

One question in particular is on the minds of many fans: When will "Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse" be coming out in theaters? The third part was actually intended to be released relatively close to its predecessor: The release date was March 29, 2024, but it soon became apparent that this date could not be met.

Both films were originally supposed to be developed more or less in parallel - basically as one big, coherent story. But then unpleasant reports began to circulate about how Part 2 could only be completed on time with great difficulty - at the expense of employees who had to work overtime for months and then left the production prematurely in droves. These employees also told of the fact that at the time of the cinema release of Part 2, there was basically no work worth mentioning on Part 3. It should be noted that Part 2 alone was in development for around 3 years.

To make matters worse, this was followed by the months-long writers' and actors' strikes in Hollywood, which further delayed production. However, after the strikes ended in November 2023, producer Chris Miller confirmed that work on the Spider-Man sequel had officially begun. So there is no standstill at least. Nevertheless, there is currently no official release date for "Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse". We are expecting a theatrical release in 2025 at the earliest - if all goes well. However, fans will certainly not be mad at the makers if they take the necessary time to give Miles and his friends a proper conclusion.