Across the Spider-Verse ‘horror’ prequel drops tomorrow — but there’s a catch

Miles Morales’ Spider-Verse horror is about to expand thanks to the premiere of the new feature The Spider Within, but there’s a catch.

Spider-Man fans are very familiar with the main iteration of the web-slinger Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) as he’s led the wildly successful films Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and Across the Spider-Verse (2023).

Fans are clamoring for final act of Miles’ trilogy — Beyond the Spider-Verse — but the movie is currently in production with no premiere date set in stone.

However, audiences can see the Brooklyn based Spidey sooner than they thought thanks to the new feature The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story, but the catch is the feature is actually a short, not a full length film.

The Spider Within, directed by Jarelle Dampier, will show Miles in a whole new light as he struggles to balance being a son, student, and Spider-Man. The movie follows him on a particularly bad day where he stuffers a panic attack and starts seeing horror-esque manifestations of his anxiety.

Dampier explained his decision to stick such a family friendly character in a horror situation to The Wrap stating, “My favorite genre is horror. I think it’s the perfect envelope to give great messages out, especially to younger audiences, and I think it’s something that we’ve kind of shied away from for a long time. But I think if you take a character that kids really love and you put that character in a thrilling situation, I think they get a lot out of it.”

The director added that, when he would discuss what his short was about to those around him, most people believed Miles would definitely suffer from these kinds of mental health issues because “he just seems like that kind of kid. But we’ve never been able to have that slice-of-life moment because the movies are so big and excellent and breathtaking. I think horror is just one of those great down-on-the-street-level genres that you can use to just get intimate and find out what really makes this character tick, what makes them scared, and what are they going to do to get through it.” I love that.”

Naturally, fans wanted to know if The Spider Within had any lasting connections to any of the Spider-Verse movies and, while Dampier didn’t confirm or deny the existence of any through-lines, he did confirm that the short includes several Easter eggs inside for fans to spot.