Miles Morales must make a sacrifice in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse trailer

We loved the 2018 computer-animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and we weren't alone. The film racked up $375.5 million at the global box office against a $90 million production budget and won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature--the first non-Pixar film to do so since 2011. Now Sony Pictures has dropped a new trailer for the much-anticipated sequel: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

(Spoilers for 2018's Into the Spider-Verse below.)

As we've reported previously, Into the Spider-Verse centered on a new incarnation of everyone's favorite web-slinging superhero: Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), a teenage graffiti artist of Black and Puerto Rican descent. When Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man (Chris Pine), was killed by Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) in his own universe, Miles (who was bitten by a radioactive spider, too) took up the Spider-Man mantle. He had to stop Fisk, who started opening portals to parallel universes where Fisk's wife and son are still alive.

Miles succeeded with the help of Spider-Man incarnations from other universes, most notably Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld). Other versions of Peter Parker were played by Jake Johnson, who reluctantly mentors Miles; Peni Parker/SP/dr (Kimiko Glenn) from an anime-inspired parallel universe; Nicholas Cage doing his best 1930s noir Humphrey Bogart impression; and my personal favorite, Peter Porker, aka Spider-Ham (John Mulaney). In the post-credits, we met Miguel O'Hara, aka Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac), who plays a major role in Across the Spider-Verse (apparently, the crew nicknamed the character "Property Damage Spider-Man").

Moore, Steinfeld, and Isaac all reprise their roles, along with Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker, Miles' mentor from the 2018 film; Luna Lauren Velez as Rio Morales, Miles' mother; and Brian Tyree Henry as Miles' police officer father, Jefferson Davis. New characters include Daniel Kaluuya as Hobie Brown/Spider-Punk (he's a guitarist in a British punk rock band); Issa Rae as Jessica Drew, a pregnant Spider-Woman from another universe; and Shea Whigham as Gwen's father, police captain George Stacy. The primary villain this time around is the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), whose body is covered in inter-dimensional portals designed to look like "living ink that had spilled or splattered on a comic artist's drawing." Per the official premise:

Miles Morales returns for the next chapter of the Oscar-winning Spider-Verse saga, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn's full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must redefine what it means to be a hero so he can save the people he loves most.

The first trailer was released last December and featured six distinct animation styles used for the universe of each incarnation of Spider-Man. This latest trailer reveals a few more details about the plot. Miles is settling into his role as Brooklyn's "one and only Spider-Man," but his crime-fighting extracurricular activities are cutting into family obligations and school. (His B in Spanish does not go over well with his parents.) Things start to get crazy when Miles encounters the Spot, and Gwen Stacy reappears to take him on another multiverse adventure involving the aforementioned group of Spider-People--including Isaac's Spider-Man 2099.

But Miles is about to learn that being Spider-Man comes at great personal cost--in this case, his own father. "You have a choice between saving one person and saving every world," he is told. Miles refuses to accept this, however, insisting he can do both. His Peter Parker mentor (now with a new baby) reminds him that Spider-Man doesn't always win, and without the death of Uncle Ben in all of the other incarnations, "most of us wouldn't be here."

Miles refuses to accept that fate. "Everyone keeps telling me how my story is supposed to go," he says. "Nah. I'm gonna do my own thing." And that pits him against the elite group of Spider-People. Honestly, the whole trailer is worth watching just for the amusing nod to that classic Spider-Man meme featuring three versions pointing at each other in confusion.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse hits theaters on June 2, 2023.

Listing image by Sony Pictures