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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now out on digital, and the new release has caused a lot of controversy over its apparent confirmation about which version of the movie is canon. As you’ll remember, when it was out in theaters, there were several versions of the same scene present in different screenings.
The moments in question are two versions of the scene where Miguel talks to his assistant Lyla. In one, she takes a selfie with a bunny and, in another, she points at him. The former makes the digital version cut. Then there’s a later moment when Andy Samberg’s Scarlet Spider grabs Miles and jokes about his "well-defined musculature". In one of the theatrical versions, he mentions putting him in a sleeper hold, but that scene is not in the digital release. There are a couple of other changes too, which viewers have been spotting online.
These so-called "missing" scenes have left some wondering if they’re now lost media. "So are we not gonna talk about how the theatrical version is just lost media now minus screen recordings dawg," writes one, which has prompted a big discussion about what exactly this constitutes as.
On one hand, people are pretty adamant about them still being accessible, even though they’re not in the digital release. "Eh I wouldn’t really say it’s lost media if we have footage of them in it’s entirety, just not in the highest quality of course," tweets one.
A second added, "Lost media in the most extreme cases are things only 1 person remembers because they have the only proof it exists. But so many people watched the movie so many times, we all know it's there and have the proof just not access to it." "We're just throwing around the term lost media now I guess," replied another.
However, others think the opinion has some merit, it’s just a more modern take on the term. "Yeah it’s kind of fucked that there’s some versions of the movie that just don’t exist in full anymore," commented one. "No because I'm a little bummed that the version I saw isn't on digital as an option. I saw it day four of being in theaters and there were so many changes and stuff," tweeted another fan.
The final view is that, well, it just doesn’t matter. "The changes don’t amount to anything as they don’t alter the story in any meaningful way," writes another viewer. "The changes are bizarre, but really, they’re unimportant." Or as a final fan simply adds, "That timeline got purged."
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