It was excitingly inevitable that we would get a sequel to the Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. I really do think the animated feature is my favorite of all the many Spider-Man movies. It was just a brilliant use of the character, exploring the meaning of being a hero with verve, wit, flashy animation and pretty much perfect everything.

Only two years away!

So what can we expect to see in a sequel to something so expansive and creative as Into the Spider-Verse? There are some obvious answers, especially considering that tease at the end of the movie. And obviously we’ll probably see all of the main characters back for another go around. But surely with the Spider-Verse foundation built, we’re going to go bigger and wilder when the movie arrives in 2022.

Join me after the jump for some ideas and characters I’d like to see in the big, hopefully bombastic sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse!

6. A new costume for Miles

Proper costume!

Miles Morales’ Spider-Man costume is great. It’s black, with a dash of red, and looks hella cool. The look was brought to wonderful life on the big screen in the first film…but if you remember how it was made, it was a pretty crummy costume. Miles took one of Spider-Man’s old costumes and spray-painted it black. I get that spray paint is Miles’ thing, but spray paint on fabric sounds like a pretty grungy superhero costume. With access to Aunt May’s Spider-Cave, I’m hoping Miles can make a proper costume in his own colors. He could have a black suit with red webbing, like the comics, instead of just painting over all the detail on the blue and red spider costume.

5. Morlun, but no other Inheritors

I still remember how badass this scene was

So who do we have for the villain? An obvious choice would be to have more fun alternate reality villains, like the female Doc Ock and the mechanical Scorpion. But the new film is likely to expand the Spider-Verse with even more realities and more versions of Spider-Man, so why not take the villain from the comic version of Spider-Verse? Morlun is a pretty gnarly villain. I remember reading his introductory arc way back in the day. He’s an unstoppable Terminator of a bad guy who seeks out and consumes the spider totem. That sounds like a pretty good villain to bring together an even larger Spider-Verse of characters in the sequel. Plus, he’s a villain that hasn’t been used before in a Spider-Man film, so that’s good.

I just don’t want to see his family, the Inheritors.

Begone, thots!

Morlun was a solid idea. But to expand upon him, Marvel came up with a whole family of posh energy vampires, and this diluted the danger. None of them are very interesting, and they don’t add anything more to the story other than additional bad guys to punch. So stick with Morlun as the sole main villain and maybe add some alternate reality rogues gallery baddies on the side.

Also, if the movie goes with Morlun, it could introduce the whole ‘spider totem’ concept and explain that that’s what unites the various Spider-People. It always bugged me that the big machine in the first movie supposedly read Peter Parker’s DNA and then used that to bring Gwen Stacey across dimensions? Wouldn’t it have brought the Peter from Gwen’s world (though he was dead)? Using Morlun could retcon the first movie to explain that the big machine read the spider totem DNA and used that to pull forth Spider-People.

4. Peter Parquagh

Frilly collars are always in style

If we’re opening up the Spider-Verse to more characters, who should appear? I’m sure everybody has their favorite options. Personally, the first one I’d pick is Peter Parquagh from Neil Gaiman’s 1602. That is such a wonderful comic, with a wonderful feel, and a Victorian-era nerdy Peter Parker would be pretty funny.

3. Clones

Damn cool costume

You know who else I’d like to see? Kaine! I’m a big Kaine fan these days. The modern version of the character, as a grumpier older brother figure to Peter, is just plain fun. So he’d be a fun addition to the growing army of Spider-Characters. Plus, he could be an added joke. You’ve got all of these alternate reality Spider-People, but he could be from another Spider-Person’s reality, like a tagalong. Or perhaps he’s the clone of the Chris Pine Spider-Man and is already from Miles’ reality. That would be a good excuse to bring Chris Pine back to do another voice! Plus, it opens up the story twist that they somehow use Kaine to hurt Morlun. If Morlun is seeking to devour pure spider totem essence, perhaps the team tricks him with the impure cloned essence of Kaine!

Look at me, already writing this thing…

2. Movie Spider-Men crossover

Coming out of retirement for one last job…

Speaking of bringing actors back, you just know that everybody in the world wants to see Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield reprise their roles as Spider-Man for a crossover. Throw in Tom Holland and you’ve got a moment that will blow moviegoers’ minds! Introduce them as alternate reality Spider-People, with their movie worlds existing within the Spider-Verse, and you’ve got the makings of the greatest movie moment of the year! Heck, let’s go even further and start bringing in the different Spider-Man cartoon characters! They copied the animation style of that old timey Spider-Man cartoon for the post-credits stinger. So how about Christopher Daniel Barnes from the 90s Spider-Man cartoon or Neil Patrick Harris from the short-lived Mtv Spider-Man cartoon? The opportunities are insane!

1. Spider-Kid

Adorable!

Peter Benjamin Parker (slob Spider-Man) had a really nice storyline all of his own in the first movie, about his longing for Mary Jane and trying to get back with her in the end. His mentorship with Miles even convinced him that he could handle kids of his own! So the sequel should move forward with that. The child of Peter and Mary Jane is a re-occurring theme in comics. We’ve had at least three of them: Mayday from Spider-Girl, Annie from Renew Your Vows, and now Benjamin from the J.J. Abrams comic. Perhaps in the sequel, Peter could return with a baby in tow! And perhaps he’ll meet an alternate reality version of that child. There are a lot of fun and crazy ways to explore that character and fatherhood in the sequel, and I hope it gets a priority.

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