Miles Morales stars in a new Spider-Verse animated short, The Spider Within

Fans might be on the edge of their seat waiting for next year’s Beyond the Spider-Verse, but it’s possible that there might be another new trip to the Spider-Verse coming before that movie’s March 2024 release, with Sony Pictures Animation unveiling The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story — an all-new short movie featuring Miles Morales — at the Annecy International Film Festival in France.

Featuring Miles dealing with his anxiety — personified by a shadowy figure visually similar to his Spider-Man costume — the short also features Easter eggs relating to the the Earth-42 spider that gave Miles his powers, as well as a cameo from Miles’ father, Jefferson. Perhaps we should consider this Spider-Verse part 2.5, and a reminder of less dangerous times for the Morales family…

The short comes from Sony’s Leading and Empowering New Storytellers mentorship program, with director Jarelle Dampier, writer Khaila Amazan, VFX supervisor Clara Chan, and animation supervisor Joe Darko talking about its themes onstage at the Annecy festival.

“In post pandemic world, I felt like I had a lot of trauma. I think a lot of us did,” Dampier told the audience following the screening of the short, according to a report on Deadline. “One of the big things that seemed to kind of bring itself to the surface was anxiety. 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.”

It’s unknown when the short will be available for public viewing; Dampier teased its release onstage, saying, “I am excited to talk about those things, but not quite yet. Exciting things are coming and we will let you know as soon as possible.” Don’t be surprised if the short gets a digital release or added to the theatrical release of Across the Spider-Verse before too long; after all, Sony has already sent updated versions of the movie with a new sound mix to theaters a week after release… why not add a new short to fuel return visits from fans, as well?

Avery Kaplan writes about the online discussion over whether to not Gwen Stacy can be read as a trans character.

We’re certainly excited about all of the Spider-Verse. So much so that we’ve written about Miles swinging into Fortnite, covered the Spider-Verse Burger King takeover, looked into the new Spider-Jordans, and even eaten a Spider-Whopper.

If you want to get up to date on all Spider-movies before watching this one, check out our Spider-Man movies watch order. Or maybe you want to go a little more complex with our comprehensive Spider-Verse watch order (it has EVERYTHING). If that isn’t enough Spider-writing for you, check out Five Spider-hero comics to read that aren’t about Peter Parker’s Spider-Man.