Netflix Surprises Everyone With One Of The Biggest Superhero Movies In Years
Spider-Man will soon be changing his signature web-slinging sound from “thwip” to “tudum.” Variety reports that this year’s blockbuster animated adventure Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will be coming to Netflix on October 31—Halloween. The movie will only be available on the OG streamer for U.S. customers, however.
A few short months ago, Across the Spider-Verse was dominating the box office, racking up a worldwide gross of $690 million—enough to earn it the title of #6 highest-grossing movie of the year. The movie was so successful that fans everywhere had to question if they were really getting sick of superhero movies like the media has been suggesting or if they were just getting sick of bad superhero movies. All of which begs the question, why isn’t this Marvel movie streaming on Disney+, home of everything else Marvel?
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will land on Netflix October 31.
The answer to that is—like everything that stems from the Sony/Disney shared Spider-Man rights clusterfluff—a bit complicated. Much as Disney produces the MCU Spider-Man movies with Sony’s blessing, Sony produces the Spider-Verse movies with Disney’s blessing.
Therefore, Across the Spider-Verse is a Sony movie first and a Marvel movie second, and Sony movies go to Netflix thanks to a deal between the two companies. That doesn’t mean that Across the Spider-Verse will never make its way to Disney+ or Hulu, just that they’ll have to wait a while for Netflix to be done playing with it.
Across the Universe definitely has that scrappy, slightly edgy Sega Genisis vibe found in many of Netflix’s animated films like Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio and Next Gen rather than the safe, Nintendo vibe of, say, Elemental.
Across the Spider-Verse was directed by Joaquim Dos Santos and Kemp Powers based on a screenplay by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. The movie follows Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) as he tries to prove he’s worthy of becoming part of a multi-versal Spider-Team led by Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac).
The film also stars Hailee Steinfeld reprising her role as Gwen Stacy from Into the Spider-Verse and Issa Rae and Daniel Kaluuya as newcomers Jessica Drew/Spider-Girl and Hobie Brown/Spider-Punk. The film’s mysterious new villain, Spot, was voiced by Wes Anderson alum Jason Schwartzman.
Despite Spider-Man being arguably the most recognizable Disney property behind Micky Mouse, Across the Spider-Verse is actually a better fit for Netflix than Disney+ anyway. While Disney+ is stuffed to the gills with classic 2D and 3D Disney animated films as well as the assorted works of Pixar, Netflix has been quietly building a library of “cooler” alternative animation geared at families but not necessarily catering to children.
Across the Spider-Verse feels more at home next to movies like The Mitchells vs. The Machines and Nimona than it does the likes of traditional Disney fare such as Inside Out and Strange New World. To put it in terms geriatric millennials can understand, when it comes to family-friendly animated content, Disney+ is like Nintendo, and Netflix is like Sega.
The movie follows Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) as he tries to prove he’s worthy of becoming part of a multi-versal Spider-Team led by Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac).
Across the Universe definitely has that scrappy, slightly edgy Sega Genisis vibe found in many of Netflix’s animated films like Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio and Next Gen rather than the safe, Nintendo vibe of, say, Elemental.
While we’re at it, Ron’s Gone Wrong is also more of a Netflix movie than a Disney one and should also be available on the grandfather of streaming services instead of its current home on Disney+.
You can catch Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse when it swings onto Netflix on October 31.
