Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Versecreativeshave given fans insight into one of the movie’s most exciting and critical sequences.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verseis a sequel to 2018’sSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which served as the mainstream cinematic introduction of Miles Morales, a young mixed-race boy who gains powers similar to (and eventually becomes the next-gen version of) the hero Spider-Man, whom Miles replaces after his demise at the hands of The Kingpin. The first film featured several alternate versions of the titular hero, and the sequel was no different, withSpider-Man: Across the Spider-Versetaking Miles to alternate dimensions.
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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Versehad the summer’s best box office openingso far. The film includes an impressive sequence in Earth 50101’s Mumbattan, home of spider-person Pavitr Prabhakar. Speaking toVarietyabout this scene, the brains behind it had an interesting story. “We had worked on that sequence for a while, and we finally got it to a place where logically and from a staging perspective, it was doing all the things,” director Joaquim Dos Santos remarked. “It was like, ‘Why is this just a wet blanket right now?’ It gets really crazy here — but we’re not connected to the story.’” The mystery was soon solved, however, thanks to the input of some of the animation team Indian members via email expressing that Pavitr didn’t feel authentic or aspirational from their (culturally important) point of view.
Despite being far along in the production process on the sequence, the team stopped working on it and looked to more knowledgeable sources for advice. “We very quickly assembled a writers room of Indian and Indian American writers,” co-director Kemp Powers, who worked alongside Dos Santos and Justin K. Thompson, revealed. “We literally re-broke the entire sequence and reimagined the Pav character. And then Chris (Miller) and Phil (Lord) very quickly rewrote the entire script for that section so that Pav’s characterization completely changed.” Miller and Lord, whocreated the seriesClone Highand are working on its reboot, did a spectacular job with the new scene, as it is one of the movie’s highlights for many.
The behind-the-scenes look at the build of this sequence does a great job of highlighting one ofSpider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’s major strengths in its impactful portrayal of the eponymous Spider-Verse. “Of the new characters that are in the film, I think Pav is one that, collectively, we’re the most proud of,” Powers revealed, with the two other directors nodding in approval. “It really spoke to the spirit of collaboration on this movie. You have to be open in this process to criticism and to good ideas from wherever they come. And that really speaks to the amount of problem solving that we had to go through to make sure that that character who’s supposed to represent a very specific part of the world felt authentic to people from that part of the world.”
Having this strength has given the sequel a distinct feel from the first movie, leading to discussions aboutwhetherAcross the Spiderverseis better thanInto the Spider-Versein a way that is rare for a sequel.
