Spider Man: Across The Spider-Verse teases new portal-jumping villain voiced by Jason Schwartzman
The Spot is his name, and "little interdimensional portals" all over his body is his game
There’s a new villain headed to the Spider-verse in Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, and the film’s directors teased that Miles Morales’ new sparring partner will be his “most formidable foe yet.”
As part of a presentation at this year’s Annecy Animation Festival, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson introduced their newest villain, The Spot. Jason Schwartzman will voice the newest foil to Miles’ webbed defender.
“For those who are not hardcore canon nerds, The Spot is one of the deepest cuts in Spider-Man’s rogue gallery,” Powers said, per Variety. “But he has a super-power that really excited our entire team: His entire body is covered in little interdimensional portals that can send him anywhere he wants to go.”
Sharing an illustrated rendition of The Spot’s oozing, skin-tight white super suit, the filmmakers explained that they wanted the villain’s character design to feel unfinished, like a sketch itself. Per Variety, they also shared that they plan for The Spot’s design to evolve and shift over the course of the film as the character’s powers grow stronger.
“We thought it would be really cool if the portals felt like living ink that had spilled or splattered on the comic artist’s drawing,” Powers said just before screening test animation footage for the reportedly mesmerized crowd. “[The Spot’s] very simple power provided endless exciting challenges and permutations for our team.”
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse is one of two planned sequels to 2018's Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, which The A.V. Club previously called “one of the best superhero movies of the modern age.” Across The Spider-Verse is expected to hit theaters next year, while a third film, Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse is slated for a 2024 rollout.
The planned sequels will reportedly take place across six multi-verses and include a whopping 240 characters. The enormous lineup of characters includes returning faces like Gwen Stacy (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld), but will also see the introduction of new characters like Jessica Drew (voiced by Issa Rae) and Spider-Man 2099 (voiced by Oscar Isaac).