Spoiler Alert: Spoilers Ahead for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Into the Spider-Verse broke ground in 2018 when it blew audiences away with its refreshing take on the superhero genre, rightfully earning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature the following year. It’s inevitable, and some might argue better, sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse received similar critical praise, having garnered critical acclaim and also box office successes, becoming the sixth highest-grossing film of 2023 at the worldwide box office with $690 million, almost doubling the total of its predecessor.
Set shortly after the events of 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Across the Spider-Verse follows Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) as he joins Gwen Stacey (Hailee Steinfeld) on a journey across the multi-verse. Throughout their journey, they come face-to-face with hundreds of Spider-People and face a new foe that forces Miles to redefine what it means to be a hero. As well as bringing back fan-favorite characters from the original, like Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) and Penny Parker (Kimiko Glenn), Across the Spider-Verse also introduces dozens of new Spider-People, including Jessica Drew (Issa Rae), Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni), and Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) who was teased during Into the Spider-Verse‘s post-credit scene.
With the Oscars feeling like they’re right around the corner, was the hype surrounding Across the Spider-Verse‘s Academy Awards’ domination just a product of recency bias or, after the amazing last 12 months of animated movies, does Across the Spider-Verse still stand out on top?
Update January 19, 2024: The Academy Awards nominations are soon to be announced, so this article has been updated with more information.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Miles Morales returns as Spider-Man and travels across the Multiverse to join forces with Gwen Stacy and a new team to face off with their most powerful villain yet.
- Release Date
- June 2, 2023
Across the Spider-Verse Improves on the Original
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse sits on an incredibly impressive 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the majority of reviews — including MovieWeb’s own — stating that Across the Spider-Verse surpasses the original in almost every aspect. Across the Spider-Verse does everything a sequel should. It pushes Miles’ character development into new territory, beautifully expands the world-building of the Spider-Verse, and pays respects to its predecessor while still feeling independent. By this argument alone, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is worthy of Oscar contention.
The buzz surrounding Across the Spider-Verse‘s inevitable Oscar campaign actually goes far beyond the original’s. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won the 2019 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. That was a huge upset, as it was released late in 2018 and saw its chances grow organically due to positive word of mouth and beating out the frontrunner, Pixar’s Incredibles 2.
However, many fans and critics are pushing for Across the Spider-Verse to be nominated for Best Picture at the 2024 Academy Awards, with some critics claiming it to be “The Dark Knight of Animated Films.” Should this happen, Across the Spider-Verse would be the 4th animated film in history to be nominated in the prestigious category and the first animated nominee not produced by Disney — with the previous nominees being Beauty and the Beast (1991), Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010).
The only thing standing in the way of Across the Spider-Verse‘s Oscar contention is the divided reception to its ending. Across the Spider-Verse is Part 1 of Miles’s story exploring the Spider-Verse, with Part 2, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, now having a TBD release date after its original March 2024 release date was delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA and WGA Strikes. Across the Spider-Verse can still be viewed as a complete movie. While Miles’s story has been split across two films, Across the Spider-Verse still features a complete 3-act structure for Gwen Stacey as she struggles to conceal her secret identity from her father.
Across the Spider-Verse ends on the perfect cliffhanger and does everything a first part should do. However, the decision to split the story into two films has vexed some viewers due to the recent Hollywood trend of similarly splitting sequels and finales into multiple parts. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was one of three films in 2023 to do this, the others being Fast X and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning. Now, all three films’ conclusions are facing delays, with Universal drastically reworking the next Fast & Furious movie and the next Mission: Impossible, dropping Part 1 from the movie Paramount+ release and ditching the naming convention for Part 2 with it now being referred to as Misson: Impossible 8. While there was never any hope of either Fast X and Dead Reckoning getting a Best Picture nomination, Across the Spider-Verse did seem to have a chance, but Academy voters might wait to see how the story concludes and wait for the third entry and give it the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King treatment where that film won not only for itself but as an accomplishment for the entire trilogy.
Across the Spider-Verse Faces Strong Competition
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse faced tough competition in its category at the 2019 Academy Awards, going up against the hotly anticipated Incredibles 2, Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, Mirai, and Ralph Breaks the Internet. When Across the Spider-Verse was first released earlier this year, critics and audiences presumed it would dominate the Oscars (at least in the animated category). However, 2023 has been one of the best years for animated movies in recent years, with the category becoming more stacked.
Alongside Across the Spider-Verse, 2023 also saw The Boy and the Heron, Nimona, Suzume, and TMNT Mutant Mayhem all released to exceptional praise. Whether this year’s animated competition is as strong as 2019’s is subjective, but the award for Best Animated Feature won’t be as one-sided in 2024 as everyone initially thought.
Outside the Academy Awards, Across the Spider-Verse is already 0-1 to Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron, which won Best Animated Feature at this year’s Golden Globes. The Boy and the Heron being a late December release date is very similar to the year when Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won Best Animated film, but now it’s sequel is no longer the underdog but the top contender that could be unseated.
One also needs to factor in the heavy weight of animation—Disney’s Wish, Pixar’s Elemental, and Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros Movie. Wish was a box office flop, but Disney tends to carry a lot of weight in the animated film category, and it could sneak in a nomination, but a win is unlikely. Elemental was originally seen as a flop, but strong word of mouth made it the surprise hit of the summer, and it has become the most streamed movie of 2023, and with Pixar’s track record, it could become a major contender.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the most interesting as the film was a box office juggernaut and is the second highest-grossing film at the domestic and worldwide box office behind only Barbie, but critically, it received mixed reviews. However, following a Golden Globe nomination, there is a chance the movie could score a Best Animated Film nomination just because it was the one animated movie many Academy voters likely saw with their kids. This also could work in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse‘s favor as the film’s successes made it easily a recognizable name for Academy voters, and with how beloved the first one was, it could take home the top prize for Best Animated Film.
Can Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Win Best Picture?
Suppose Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse does jump the boundary of the Animated Feature Film category and receives a nomination for Best Picture. In that case, it will become only the second superhero movie to do so, behind Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther in 2019. Across the Spider-Verse would also have the chance to break even more records than it already has, with a win making it the first superhero movie ever to win the award for Best Picture.
However, the potential competition for Best Picture will be incredibly strong this year, with beloved academy directors Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, and Greta Gerwig each releasing films in 2023. Across the Spider-Verse would also face tough competition from this year’s festival highlight films like Todd Haynes’ May December and Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, which both received rave reviews. In addition, Poor Things and The Holdovers have become later award season favorites, tightening up the potential Best Picture race.
It is incredibly likely that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will feature somewhere among the 2024 Academy Awards nominations, with an almost guaranteed place in the Best Animated Feature category. However, the real test for Across the Spider-Verse comes in the Best Picture category, where the other potential nominees might be the strongest list of candidates in years.
