Morbius director Daniel Espinosa has revealed Spider-Totems lie at the heart of Sony’s Spider-Man multiverse – here’s all you need to know about them.
Morbius director Daniel Espinosa has revealed Spider-Totems is central to Sony’s understanding of the multiverse. For years, there has been speculation about the exact relationship between Sony’s Spider-Man Universe and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That was finally unravelled in the post-credits scene of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, in which Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock is brought into the MAIN MCU by a multiverse phenomenon – eventually revealed to be Doctor Strange’s misguided spell in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Morbius director Daniel Espinosa has recently clarified Spider-Man’s link to the Sony films. He first referred to the standard multiverse model from the comics; “So in almost all verses, you have Spider-Man, or a Fantastic Four, or a Tony Stark, or a Morbius. But they will be different in tone. That’s not quite the way that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (is) approaching the idea, but they’re remaining to some core truth.” He then developed this idea, however, by introducing something viewers will be a lot less familiar with; the idea of Spider-Totems. “Then you have the second kind of legend, which is about the totem. Which is that, in all universes, there is a Spider-Totem. Which means that in all universes, there has to be a Spider-Man. Or a Spider-Woman.”
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Espinosa’s words are the first real hint viewers have about the multiverse legend Sony is discovering in their Spiderman Rug Universe. Moreover, he doesn’t just drive freely; These ideas were implemented in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and they are very much in line with Sony’s future plans for Madame Web. Here’s everything you need to know about Spider-Totems.
Spider-Man’s Spider-Totems Explained
Spider-Totems is the brainchild of writer J. Michael Straczynski. His Amazing Spider-Man race reveals that, centuries ago, there was a wise man named Kwaku Anansi living in the forests of West Africa. He was the first to resemble Spider-Man, and he made a deal with the sky god Nyame to learn the secrets of the past, present, and future. In return, he becomes Nyame’s agent in Web of Life and Destiny that transcends the multiverse itself. This network acts as the connective tissue that binds the dimensions together; it preserves the past, the present, the future and all other dimensions in place. Anansi herself disappeared into the depths of the multiverse, but survived on her children, the spiders.
Each dimension possesses its own Spider-Totem, a champion of the Web of Life and Destiny. In the comics, Peter Parker is the Spider-Totem of Earth-616; he was granted super-powers when a spider was exposed to radiation and bit him, passing on its properties, but none of that was actually a coincidence. It was all according to the will of Anansi; as Spider-Man’s mentor Ezekiel explained it, “You are a child of the spider and a child of science.” Certain Totems are beings of multiversal significance; the Great Weaver is responsible for continuing to spin the threads of the multiverse, while the Bride weaves hidden threads, enabling new Totems to emerge through chaos and luck. All this aligns perfectly with Espinosa’s comments.
Madame Web, Silk & The Web Of Life & Destiny
All this fits well with Sony’s focus on Madame Web, envisioned as Sony’s Doctor Strange equivalent. In the comics, Madame Web is traditionally portrayed as a blind precognitive woman who interferes with Spider-Man’s life when she sees the need. In reality, she is far more; rather, she is bound to the Web of Life and Destiny, and it is through her connection to this multiversal force that she intuits the patterns of past, present and future. Indeed, in some stories Madame Web is even able to manipulate the strands of the Web at will, even transporting Spider-Totems across the multiverse to ensure they play their assigned role in what she calls the “Great Pattern.” Sony is pushing on with a Madame Web movie, starring Dakota Johnson as the character and recently confirming Sydney Sweeney for an undisclosed part. There’s been speculation Sweeney could be the Black Cat, but it’s more likely she is playing a Spider-Totem of some kind.
Meanwhile, Sony is also developing silk TVs. Former Watchmen producer Tom Spezialy has signed up as the show’s host, although production has not yet begun. Silk, too, has a notable connection to the Web of Life and Destiny; she is the Bride, described as “the spinner in the center of the Web. Bitten a second time. Silk fiber without pieces of fabric … It’s the hand of fate.” It’s never been entirely clear what this means — Silk has focused more on acting as another street level in the Marvel Universe than exploring her multiverse role — but it’s certainly interesting that the Spider-Man character sony is working on is inextricably linked to the Web of Life and Fate.
Spider-Totems Transform Sony’s Spider-Man Universe
The concept of Spider-Totems can bring a degree of structure to Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (or multiverse). They could play into Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One), with images from the trailer showing Miles Morales plunging through the Web of Life and Destiny; thus the animated movies could be established as part of the same multiverse, just as Marvel Studios’ animated What If…? is part of the same multiverse as the mainstream MCU. If every dimension has its own Spider-Totem, then there really are an infinite number of different Spider-Men out there; thus future films could feature characters as disparate as Spider-Punk, the Steampunk Lady Spider, or Spider-Man 2099. But such a multiverse of spiders naturally presents the possibility of a team-up, akin to the comic book “Spider-Verse” events.
Meanwhile, this multiversal concept also allows Sony to capitalize on the return of both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in their own Spider-Man universes. Spider-Man: No Way Home brought three live-action Spider-Men together, and it could serve as a launchpad for the return of Maguire and Garfield as their own dimensions’ respective Spider-Totems. For Garfield, this could mean the opportunity to make The Amazing Spider-Man 3; for Maguire, it could mean using his injury to force his Spider-Man to retire, leading to a Spider-Girl taking over as she did in one comic book timeline. Because there must always be a Spider-Totem, when one steps down – however unwillingly – another takes their place. Thus Espinosa’s brief reference to Spider-Man’s Spider-Totems has the potential to complete transform Sony’s multiverse.
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