Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse may have included some impressive live-action sequences, but it seems even more were previously planned. The directors opened up about the sequel, sharing some insight into why they cut these moments from the script.
"We had even bigger ambitions," Justin K. Thompson told Variety. His co-director Kemp Powers added: "There were times when we had huge live-action sequences in the film, and it just turned into a bad joke. Even we didn’t like it anymore. And we just said, 'OK, enough, let’s make sure that it’s something precise that gets the most bang for the buck, and speaks to the story.'"
The directors didn’t share details of what these scenes were but told the publication that they existed as storyboards and animatics. They, alongside the third director Joaquim Dos Santos, used cut-out versions of the live-action characters with other crew reading their lines. "They had the look of like a South Park character," Powers said, while Thompson added: "We should do that as a character." Now that we'd like to see...
Across the Spider-Verse does feature some very intriguing live-action moments. Venom’s Mrs. Chen is the first character to appear when the Spot is hopping across different universes. Later on, Donald Glover cameos as the Prowler who has been captured by the Spider-People at their headquarters. There are also some clips of Tobey Maguire's and Andrew Garfield's Spideys when Miguel O’Hara is explaining canon events.
Intriguingly, Glover’s cameo was filmed and inserted into the movie later on after being shot in New York. "We got it in at the eleventh hour," Powers added to Variety. "As a matter of fact, even in audience preview screenings, it was a little cardboard cutout of Donald Glover." Dos Santos added: "We knew it was still going to land, though, because the idea of it still got people geeked. That’s when you know you have something."
For more spoiler-filled deep dives into Across the Spider-Verse, check out our guides to:
- All the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Easter eggs
- Interview with Miles Morales actor Shameik Moore
- Interview with Spider-Punk actor Daniel Kaluuya
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ending explained
- All the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse cameos
- All the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse alternate worlds and Spidey variants
- Is there a Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse post-credits scene?
- When will Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse be on streaming?
- Beyond the Spider-Verse release date, cast, and more
