There’s a lot of things that goes into making an animated movie. And while some (including some big names in Hollywood) would dismiss the efforts that go into making such a thing, it’s a lot of work. A great example of this can be noted in the differences between Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse and the upcoming Spider-Man Across The Spider-Verse. Because at CinemaCon, Producer Chris Miller noted that in the first movie was 40 characters, and that in the sequel, there are 240 unique characters.
That has led to a LOT of speculation about all the characters that we can see in this animated Multiverse. But let’s be clear on something, just because there are 240 “unique characters” doesn’t mean that they’re all major players. Something that Miller would go on to note later on:
“To clarify, amidst the universe-hopping there are 240 unique characters that had to be designed and modeled but they’re mostly minor or background characters. The scale is grand, but the story is personal & centers on Miles and his family, along w/ Gwen and a handful of others”.
This may seem odd at first, but if you think about the scenes in Into The Spider-Verse, there weren’t a lot of character models visible, probably by design to help them “shave off costs” and enhance the focus on the core Spider-Team. But in Spider-Man Across The Spider-Verse, that’s not going to be an option due to how they’re going across dimensions in order to see the other worlds and the other Spider-Men (and women!). So thus, having all these worlds requires a greater amount of minor and background characters.
Just in the clip shown at CinemaCon, we saw more of Spider-Gwen’s world, one of her villains, her father, and the arrival of Jessica Drew. So now multiple that across multiple worlds? And yeah, they need a lot of ‘Unique Characters” to fill the gap.
Source: ComicBook.com