Now that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is on digital after sweeping theater-goers off their feet earlier this year, it’s time to look forward to the future and see what the plot of Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse might hold.
You see, like Avengers: Infinity War in 2018, Across the Spider-Verse is actually part one of a two-part story. Though a release date has not been set, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse is the third installment to the franchise that is set to conclude the cliffhanger ending from this year’s box office smash.
With Across the Spider-Verse’s introduction of a multitude of Spider-Man variants and dimension-shattering plot points to boot, the story could honestly go in any number of directions at this point. So let’s give our best guesses as to how the epic tale might conclude, in order from least to most mind-blowing.
Unexpected alliances
In Across the Spider-Verse, Miguel O’Hara — aka Spider-Man 2099 — comes across as either a secondary antagonist or an ally to Miles in disguise. It could very well be that he will ultimately team up with Miles once he realizes the greater threat found in the dimension-hopping Spot.
However, perhaps Miguel will actually team up with Spot — only on a temporary basis — in order to use him to reign in Miles’ canon-ignoring antics as an anomaly that could destroy the universe. We could easily see Miguel having a hand in the death of one of Miles’ loved ones in an almost accidental way, rather than as a villain outright, due to the unstable alliance he has with Spot.
Prowler Miles — a surprise hero?
Another character who will no doubt have a huge role to play in Beyond the Spider-Verse is Prowler Miles. You see, this is the universe that was missing its spider. Instead of becoming Spider-Man, an alternate dimension version of him becomes the Prowler instead, a villain from the first movie. Maybe Prowler Miles won’t be yet another villain added to the roster but a surprise ally that helps our main hero out.
True, Prowler Miles has a lot to resent about his alternate-dimension counterpart. Not only did Prowler Miles not receive the super-powered spider bite he was meant for but his father is dead in his universe while our main Miles still has a dad. However, once the Spot enters the picture, maybe Prowler Miles will see the value in teaming up with his alternative self in order to protect the loved ones he does have left, such as his uncle Aaron and his mom, Rio. Plus, we can imagine Prowler Miles will have an anti-establishment attitude toward Miguel and his Spider-Society’s rigid rules about preserving canon events at all costs.
Does Miguel make the ultimate sacrifice?
Since Miguel is so adamant that Miles does not disrupt canon events due to the unexpected consequences such actions can have on others and the fabric of spacetime itself, might he take matters into his own hands in the most extreme way?
For instance, if every Spider-Man is supposed to have a police officer in their personal orbit die at some point to maintain the multiversal order, perhaps that means Miguel would not be opposed to literally murdering Miles’ father — Jefferson Davis — himself.
It definitely seems as if Miguel in Across the Spider-Verse is on the fence of either becoming the ultimate hero or the ultimate villain of the next film. If it is the latter, there could be no better heel turn in the history of comic book movies than for him to take away one of Miles’ closest loved ones.
Are there other anomalies besides Miles?
In Across the Spider-Verse, it is explained that Miles is an anomaly since the spider that bit him actually came from another dimension. This makes Miles a target for Miguel’s Spider-Society since anomalies tend to cause universes to collapse.
At the end of the film, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Punk, Peter B. Parker, and a few other pals form their own team in solidarity with Miles and his struggle. What’s interesting is the return of some characters from the first film — 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse — who suddenly show up to support Miles and join Gwen’s team at the end.
However, why were the likes of Spider-Ham, Spider-Noir, and Peni Parker mostly absent for the majority of Across the Spider-Verse until the very end? Maybe those three in particular were also avoiding Miguel throughout the film and we will find out in Beyond the Spider-Verse that they, too, are anomalies of some kind who have disrupted their own universe’s canon events.
Could ‘Beyond the Spider-Verse’ point to IRL Miles making his debut?
Let’s meditate on that title for a minute: Beyond the Spider-Verse. What could this mean? Perhaps the title will allude to Miles making a foray into the real world, with it being filmed in live-action instead of animation.
After all, there is a classic episode of The Simpsons in the third segment of “Treehouse of Horror VI,” in which Homer finds himself in the third dimension, changing his composition from ink-on-paper to full CGI. After a polygonal cone he discards pierces the space-time continuum, he is thrust into the real world by the end of the episode. This oddly sounds a lot like the incursion-type events that happen to universes in Across the Spider-Verse when canon events are not adhered to, such as when Inspector Singh is saved by Miles in Pavitr Prabhakar’s Mumbattan universe.
Perhaps Miles’ own universe will succumb to a blackhole-type event when he chooses to save his police captain father against Miguel’s wishes. However, maybe the twist — and the “Beyond” part of the story — will be that instead of Miles and company getting destroyed, they simply get flung into the real world where actors Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld can appear as their animated counterparts, Miles and Gwen respectively, in live-action for the first time.