“Go woke, go broke!” encapsulates the schadenfreude that rightwing culture warriors express when art forms that embrace progressive ideals fail commercially. Such sentiment has been vanquished by the success of Spider-Man: Across the Spider‑Verse, which is currently the biggest film in the US, grossing more than half a billion dollars worldwide in a month. The animated movie, a sequel to 2018’s Oscar‑winning Into the Spider‑Verse, bounces around different universes meeting socially aware, racially diverse superheroes. The main character is African‑Latino Spider-Man, Miles Morales; Gwen Stacy’s Spidey endorses trans rights; there’s an Indian Spider‑Man with an anti‑colonial outlook living in a Mumbai‑Manhattan hybrid; and a pregnant biker Spider‑Woman. One of the film’s themes, spread over two hours of dazzling artwork, is how identity is a constant negotiation of race, class, nationality and gender.
The movie is also rewriting the script in Hollywood. First, it entrenches animation as a coming cinematic form – expanding beyond studios such as the child-friendly Pixar and the ethereal output of Studio Ghibli. Guillermo del Toro’s remake of Pinocchio as a dark animated musical won this year’s Oscar. The Mexican director was so taken with the technique that he declared in June: “I only want to do animation.” Across the Spider-Verse is also a testament to the democratisation of film-making; among the 1,000 people who contributed was a 14-year-old whose animated Lego characters made it into the final cut.
