Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse out the spotlight on a slew of wall-crawling Variants, only for this past summer's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse to massively up the ante.
Spider-Man India, Spider-Woman, and Spider-Punk were among the new heroes we met in the sequel but the latter was very nearly left on the cutting room floor. Talking to Total Film (via Toonado.com), co-director Joaquim Dos Santos revealed that Daniel Kaluuya's rockin' web-slinger wasn't always going to be part of the Spider-Society.
"It's funny as he had to earn his way into the film - he almost got cut out of the movie!" the filmmaker explains. "There were versions of the Spider-Society he wasn't involved in - but the scenes suffered for him not being in it. It became really elevated when he joined."
His fellow co-director, Kemp Powers, then weighed in to reveal how happy he's been to see fans embrace Hobie Brown.
"It was so gratifying for him to be such a hit as when information was leaking out about the movie, many people were asking online where their favorites were, like Spider-Man Noir etc. We were like all 'come on, you gotta trust us, you'll love the new characters' but the fans came back saying they wouldn't. But hey - look what happened!"
There's been a lot of chatter about spin-offs coming out of this Spider-Verse trilogy, with only a female-led effort semi-confirmed at this stage. Asked whether Spider-Punk will ever get to take centre stage a spin-off, filmmaker Justin K. Thompson chimed in with:
"Whilst making this movie we wanted to ensure that all of our characters and the dimensions they come from could open up - honestly, it was like making six films. We invested as much into each of them so they could stand alone if needed. And we wanted to give audiences a true sense that they were visiting something as fleshed out as a separate movie. We were geeking out whilst making it thinking how rad it would be to work on an entire film set in just one of these dimensions. We've heard from fans that they want a Spider-Punk series or a Spider-Gwen short - I'd love to see a Pav short!"
Making these movies has not proven to be an easy experience for Sony Pictures, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was reportedly besieged by issues behind the scenes due to long working hours and constant changes to the story.
Given the franchise's unique animation style, any spin-off will take a long time to develop so patience will be key when it comes to seeing this Spider-Verse expand. It would be a missed opportunity not to give some of these heroes a chance to shine, so here's hoping Spider-Punk is near the top of Sony's list of characters who could star in movies of their own.