Sony Pictures Animation’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2 is moving forward and THR has reported that yet another Spider-person will be joining Shameik Moore (Miles Morales) and Hailee Steinfeld’s (Spider-Gwen) latest adventure. THR revealed that Issa Rae (Insecure) has joined Into the Spider-Verse 2. Nothing is official just yet, but THR’s sources say that she will be voicing Jessica Drew, aka Spider-Woman.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but the film became a huge success, even taking home the Best Animated Feature award at 2019’s Oscars ceremony. Production on the sequel officially kicked off last summer and it was announced in April that Joaquim Dos Santos (The Legend of Korra), Kemp Powers (Soul), and Justin K. Thompson (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) would be directing. “The crew behind the ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ set such a ridiculously high bar, and we’re humbled to take on the challenge of charting the next chapter in the story of Miles Morales,” said the directing team in a joint statement. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller will once again produce the sequel, but will also write the script with David Callaham (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings). Before she suits up for Into the Spider-Verse 2, Issa Rae is busy shooting the fifth and final season of Insecure for HBO. She was last seen starring alongside Kumail Nanjiani in Netflix’s The Lovebirds.
In the Marvel comics, Jessica Drew became gravely ill due to uranium exposure. Her father, a geneticist, injected Jessica with an untested serum made from the blood of several uncommon species of spiders. He also sealed her in a genetic accelerator which kept her in stasis for decades. Emerging decades later with no memories of her past, Jessica became an assassin for HYDRA. She later rebelled when she discovered the true nature of the organization. As Spider-Woman, Jessica possesses many of the same abilities as Peter Parker, such as strength, speed, and wall-crawling, but she also as a few unique abilities, such as being able to channel bio-electricity through her hands as “venom blasts.”
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2 will hit theaters on October 7, 2022.