Back in the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s heyday (otherwise known as the tail-end of both the Infinity Saga and the 2010s), Avengers: Infinity War was absolutely dominating on a number of fronts, including cultural and financial, but no market was soaking up Thanos’ big adventure quite like the meme department.
Indeed, if we had a nickel for every time we came across a “biggest crossover event in history” meme back then, we’d have an awfully hard time lugging them all to the nearest bank. Of course, the meme eventually died, as all memes do, but this particular gag looks to be having its phoenix moment thanks to Sony, and this time, it’s no meme.
We knew Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was going to have a cast big enough to inhabit a small village, but even that didn’t prepare us for the musings of writers/producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who divulged to Entertainment Weekly that an estimated 240 unique characters would be showing up for the second round of Miles Morales’ Spider-Man shenanigans.
We knew Miles, Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman, and Peter B. Parker would all be back from Into the Spider-Verse, but with the whole Spider-Man multiverse in play this time, we’ll also be introduced to the likes of Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Punk, Jessica Drew’s Spider-Woman, Spider-Man India, Scarlet Spider, Spider-Byte, Captain Spider, Ultimate Tarantula, and apparently hundreds of other characters that one would be forgiven for thinking are made up (all characters are technically made up, of course, but we digress).
Indeed, this is one cast list that puts Infinity War to shame, and if Across the Spider-Verse does its predecessor the justice it deserves, it’ll be putting the MCU to shame in quite a few other ways, too.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is due in theaters on June 2.