What is The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story all about? Details explored

The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story is a highly awaited short film that has emerged in the fan-favorite Spider-Verse, while the sequel movie Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse has been raging at the box office. The short film made its world debut on Monday, June 12, 2023, at the prestigious Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

However, the release date and platform for the new short film are yet to be disclosed by Sony Pictures Animation, which has produced the film. Jarelle Dampier is the director of The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story, and it has been written by Khaila Amazan. Michelle Raimo-Kouyate and David Schulenburg have acted as producers for the upcoming short film.

The film will depict the titular Marvel Comics character Miles Morales' struggle to cope with being Spider-Man, leading to severe anxiety issues.

Since the first look from the film was dropped on Twitter by Sony Pictures Animation, the audience has been buzzing with anticipation to witness what the upcoming film brings to the table.

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The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story will center around the theme of anxiety and mental health

The upcoming short film, The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story will star Shameik Moore as the lead character Miles Morales, who will be seen feeling the burden of his life as Spider-Man. This will ultimately result in a horrifying, trippy, and worrisome little ride through his subconscious mind.

As stated in the synopsis for the new short film, released by IMDb:

"Miles Morales experiences a panic attack that forces him to confront the manifestations of his anxiety and learn that reaching out for help can be just as brave an act as protecting his city from evil."

By the looks of the synopsis, it is evident that the animated film, The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story, will put its primary focus on Miles' mental health as he will be seen suffering from panic attacks. The movie will also shed light on the importance of seeking help when dealing with mental health issues.

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In a recent interview with TheWrap, the director of the short film, Jarelle Dampier, opened up about the concept of The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story and how the idea was born.

"My favorite genre is horror. I think it’s the perfect envelope to give great messages out, especially to younger audiences, and I think it’s something that we’ve kind of shied away from for a long time. 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," he said.

"I say kids, but really I’m talking about all of us. I’m talking about the kid inside of us, you know what I mean? The ability to use something scary with something we love, I think that’s the combination to landing the points, sticking the landing in the film," he added.

The director also revealed that he also suffers from anxiety and sleep paralysis.

"I suffer from a lot of things. I didn’t realize it, but I think in this kind of post-pandemic world, I feel like I learned a lot about myself. I learned that I deal with anxiety. I learned that I deal with insomnia. I learned that sleep paralysis and things like that are all tied to this kind of overactive mental state and not being able to control that snowball that happens," Dampier continued.

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It will be quite intriguing to see how the short film, The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story, will unfold. Meanwhile, the audience can catch Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse in theaters near them now.