Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will not be released in the UAE, due to a violation of local censorship laws dealing, once again, with the LGBTQ+ world.
Apparently, the detail that cost the Sony animated film its distribution in the Middle Eastern country is a poster, which appears in one scene for a very brief moment, which reads “Protect Trans Lives”.
Censorship in the UAE has eased in recent years, but there are still very strict guidelines on respecting local customs and values, especially with regard to youth-targeted content, such as animation. Movies like Onward, Lightyear, Thor: Love and Thunder, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and West Side Story have been banned in several Middle Eastern and Gulf countries. Disney is tackling the cases one by one: in the case of Eternals , for example, it has agreed to have the sequences centered on the gay relationship of one of the characters cut, while in the case of Strange Worldhe preferred not to give in to local requests and avoided distributing the film in certain markets, such as the Middle East, Malaysia and Indonesia.
The official synopsis for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Miles Morales returns in the next chapter in the Academy Award-winning Spider-Verse saga, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse . After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, the friendly Brooklyn neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted into the Multiverse, where he meets a team of “Spider-Heroes” charged with protecting its existence. But when the heroes clash over how to deal with a new threat, Miles finds himself up against the other “Spiders” and will have to redefine what it means to be a hero in order to save the people he loves most.
The cast
The voice cast includes Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Jake Johnson, Oscar Isaac, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Vélez, Issa Rae, Daniel Kaluuya, Karan Soni, Andy Samberg and Jason Schwartzman .
Direction and screenplay
Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson . The screenplay is by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and David Callaham .