Issa Rae to play Spider-Woman in Into The Spider-Verse 2
The Spider-Verse is getting a little more…spider-er?…today, as THR reports that Issa Rae has signed on to co-star in the sequel to 2018's Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. Specifically, Rae—still fresh off the fourth season of her HBO series Insecure, and gearing up to produce its fifth—will voice Jessica “Spider-Woman” Drew in the sequel, written and co-produced by the original’s Christopher Miller and Phil Lord.
Of course, given the general conceit of the Spider-Verse films—which team Shameik Moore’s Miles Morales up with Spider-folk pulled from across a brightly colored multiverse of Marvel history—there’s no guarantee that Rae will be playing the only Spider-Woman in town, but we’re fairly confident in assuming that she’ll at least be playing a Spider-Woman. (Drew’s backstory, which involves phrases like “her mother’s womb was hit with a laser full of spider-DNA,” “former HYDRA agent,” and “Bova, the human-cow nanny” may or may not make it fully into the film, although the idea of a spider-person with ties to the wrong side of the law would definitely make for a pretty intriguing plot hook.)
Plot details about the sequel are being kept very quiet, although we know that Moore and Hailee Steinfeld are expected to reprise their roles as Miles and Spider-Gwen, respectively. (Also, that teaser at the end of the first film certainly implies that Oscar Isaac’s Spider-Man 2099 should probably show up.) The script for the film is reportedly already written, too, with directing duties being handed off to Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, and the original film’s co-director, Peter Ramsey, executive producing.
This will be one of Rae’s first stints as a voice actor; she previously “appeared” on two episodes of BoJack Horseman, playing a therapist who is not revealed, at any point in the story, to have mysterious spider-powers instilled in her by a magic laser. Alas!
The second Spider-Verse film is currently scheduled for an October 2022 release.