New Spider-Verse Animated Short Film Releases In June

Spider-Verse is getting a new animated short film called The Spider Within. It's set in the same universe as the upcoming Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and its predecessor Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Variety reports that The Spider Within will first premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June. The story revolves around Miles Morales juggling his multiple responsibilities--including moonlighting as a superhero--and later in the film, he will learn to ask for help after experiencing a panic attack.

The short film is produced by members of Sony's LENS (Leading and Empowering New Storytellers) incubator, a mentorship program that places candidates from underrepresented backgrounds in creative leadership positions.

Candidates got to create a world within Spider-Verse--the resulting The Spider Within short--in this first round of the program and in the upcoming second round, participants will get to create a story within K-pop: Demon Hunter's universe.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse launches in theaters on June 2. According to trailers released, Miles Morales will travel to universes with other Spider superheroes--the inverse of the first movie, during which they came to his world.

In a recent interview, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse writer and producer Chris Miller said that Across the Spider-Verse is a sequel similar in style to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. "People who've seen Across... have told us that it feels like The Empire Strikes Back of the Spider-Verse franchise," Miller said. "It shows you worlds you haven't seen, and it's an emotional story that ends in a place where you need to see the third one. So, yeah: This is our Empire."