The Insecure Actress is now secure.

We are watching our girl Issa Rae grow up right before our very eyes. She went from the Awkward Black Girl to being insecure & now she will be swinging off buildings? This is just how awesome you can be when you are a black girl who rocks!

The Hollywood Reporter explained it so eloquently:

Rae will join returning actors Shameik Moore, who voiced the film’s hero Miles Morales, and Hailee Steinfeld who played Gwen Stacy, a.k.a. Spider-Gwen. Both actors have already confirmed they will appear in the sequel which, after multiple reschedules, is now set to arrive in theaters on October 7th, 2022. Rae is the first new addition to be announced. 

Little is known about the sequel’s plot, but it’s safe to assume that it will have a similar, multiverse structure as Into the Spider-Verse. In the Oscar-winning film, a young Brooklyn kid named Miles Morales becomes the new Spider-Man and acclimates to the role with a little help from other Spider characters across multiple universes. John Mulaney plays a pig who was bitten by a spider and now goes by the name Spider-Ham, and Nicholas Cage turns in a memorable performance as an old-school, Humphrey Bogart-esque Spider-Man known as Spider-Man Noir. 

To put it simply, Into the Spider-Verse blew people’s minds when it first came out. Pretty much everyone from Barack Obama to Kevin Smith praised the film for its heart, humor, and comic book-come-to-life quality of animation. Even MCU’s Spider-Man and Esquire cover star Tom Holland gave the film a glowing review, writing on Instagram, “Honestly one of the coolest films I’ve ever seen. Do yourself a favor and go see this movie.” 

As for the sequel’s closely guarded plot, some have suggested that the presence of Spider-Woman means that the film might include a visit to one of MCU’s most important landscapes, Wundagore Mountain. You see, Spider-Woman, who made her Marvel debut in 1977, grew up on Wundagore Mountain after moving there with her family from London when she was a young girl. You know who else is from Wundagore Mountain? Quicksilver and his twin the Scarlet Witch, aka Wanda. Does that mean we’ll be getting an Elizabeth Olsen cameo in the Into the Spider-Verse sequel?? Probably not, but who the hell knows!

Just like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the follow-up film exists in a separate universe than the MCU Spider-Man films, but that doesn’t mean a future, potential collaboration that melds the two worlds is entirely out of the question. When it comes to Spider-Woman, the two studios could reach an agreement that allows them to share the rights to the character, just like they did in regards to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man films. But as of now, both Sony and Marvel are developing their own separate takes on Spider-Woman. As Esquire’s own Brady Langmann reported recently, Emilia Clarke is rumored to have been cast in the role of Spider-Woman in Marvel’s upcoming Disney+ series, Secret Invasion.