Across The Spider-Verse Is Setting MCU Secret Wars A Huge Challenge

While the MCU's Avengers: Secret Wars is being set up as the major multiversal culmination of their current saga, Sony's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse creates quite the challenge. Featuring Miles Morales who will be leaving his home reality for the first time, the trailer promises a literal army of variants. However, it's already evident that they'll all be there with a specific purpose for the film's narrative, something Avengers: Secret Wars needs to be cognizant of.

In the first trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Miles Morales is introduced to a collection of different Spider-Man variants in the Spider-Verse. However, it's also implied that Miles will have major tensions with many of them, particularly between himself and Spider-Man 2099 (voiced by Oscar Isaac). As such, it certainly seems as though the narrative of the upcoming Spider-Verse sequel will be incredibly intentional in its use of all these different variants.

Across The Spider-Verse Sets A High Bar For Secret Wars

Based on the trailer alone, it's evident that Across the Spider-Verse will be massive in scale. Case in point, almost every single Spider-Man variant can be identified as an established variant in the Spider-Man mythos, and there will likely be even more to come in the full animated film. It's already been confirmed that Miles will be visiting multiple different realities, meeting Spider heroes of all shapes and sizes along the way.

As such, the bar is being set very high for Avengers: Secret Wars which will undoubtedly have similarities with its own variants from realities beyond the primary MCU. The vast multiverse has already begun to be explored in shows such as Loki and films like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. However, the culminating film in Marvel's Multiverse Saga needs to be careful about how and why it will debut so many variants when the film releases in 2026.

Across The Spider-Verse Reveals Avengers 6's True Challenge

Clearly, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is going to be very story-focused with Miles choosing to do something all the other variants believe they have to prevent. It won't just be cramming as many heroes as possible into a movie for the sake of it being a multiverse movie. There's going to be a very clear intention behind the majority of Spider-Verse variants featured in the upcoming sequel.

In comparison, Avengers: Secret Wars must avoid the same problem. Having variants just to have them isn't going to be enough if the movie wants to have a chance of being as eventful and epically conclusive as Avengers: Endgame. Just like Across the Spider-Verse, the story for Avengers: Secret Wars will need to adequately support whoever shows up from another reality to help save the MCU's multiverse.

More: Are Spider-Verse's Original Multiverse Spideys In The Sequel?