After battling a series of challenging villains, including The Spot in his most recent animated film, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Miles Morales is now facing one of his most formidable foes ever.
In The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story, a new short film from director Jarelle Dampier, Miles (Shameik Moore) must overcome the anxiety that comes with wearing the Spider-Man suit. A first-look photo of The Spider Within has been made available by The Wrap, which describes the short film as “a scary, trippy little jaunt through [Miles’] subconscious.”
In the photo, Miles is seen with his eyes closed sitting on the window sill inside his room. Orbs of blue light reflect off his window as he seems to be taking a pause from all the ups and downs that his life has become since taking on the powers of a superhero.
Dampier explained that the idea for The Spider Within came from his own experience with anxiety, insomnia, and sleep paralysis. “I suffer from a lot of things,” Dampier told Variety. “Things like that are all tied to this kind of overactive mental state and not being able to control that snowball that happens.”
The director said a story about someone going through anxiety fits well within a Spider-Man narrative because it is a great way to let young people know that anxiety is something everyone deals with – even superheroes.
“I think it’s something that we’ve kind of shied away from for a long time,” he said. “But I think if you take a character that kids really love and you put that character in a thrilling situation, I think they get a lot out of it. I say kids, but really, I’m talking about all of us. I’m talking about the kid inside of us.”
The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story releases March 27, 2024 on Sony Pictures Animation’s YouTube at 6 a.m. PT.