A recurring theme in both Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Across the Spider-Verse is the pressure Miles Morales puts on himself. Already dealing with the normal anxieties of being a high school kid, he also has to live up to his parents’ high expectations and those he puts on himself, not to mention the heavy responsibility that comes with being Spider-Man. It’s enough to put anyone’s mental health to the test.
Sony Pictures Animation is tackling the issue of mental health head-on with a new short film set in the ‘Spider-Verse’ universe. It shows Miles Morales suffering an anxiety attack as he copes with school, exams, relationships, and more. His anxiety manifests in the form of a dark alter ego and thousands of spiders.
Miles does get help, though, from his father Jeff Morales. Building strong relationships between fathers and sons, especially those in the Black community, is a driving message of the short, which premiered at the Annecy International Film Festival today.
The short film comes from director Jarelle Dampier and writer Khalla Amazan, along with VFX supervisor Clara Chan as part of a Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks joint mentorship program. They were given “carte blanche” to determine the theme and how to approach it within the Spider-Verse.
Unfortunately, there’s no news on when/if the short will get a wider release. Hopefully soon!
The timing couldn’t be better, as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has $313M after two weeks of release, quickly approaching the $384M run of 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse.