Why No One But Daniel Kaluuya Could Play Spider-Punk, According To The Spider-Verse Directors
Coming after 2018's "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," which is one of the most inventive animated movies ever made, the new "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is nothing close to a conventional sequel. The eye-popping, mind bending follow-up deconstructs and reinvents the superhero genre in act a joyous act of rebellion that could only be done inside this medium. Live-action comic book fare simply can't compete with groundbreaking animation at this simultaneously inspiring and disruptive level.
For a movie that's perfectly fine with tearing down and rebuilding what came before, "Across the Spider-Verse" carves out its own path in the world of film with unapologetic, reckless teenage abandon. So it's a perfect fit for the Brooklyn born and bred version of Spidey, Miles Morales, on alternate Earth-1610 — a kid who isn't afraid to break the rules and go his own way.
Miles, along with Gwen Stacy's Spider-Woman, are the heart and soul of "Across the Spider-Verse," but one character in particular represents the true independent spirit of the film: Spider-Punk. Voiced by Daniel Kaluuya, Spider-Punk a.k.a. Hobie Brown is a textbook example of perfect casting, giving the Oscar-winning actor a chance to have a little fun and get back to his UK roots after making a name for himself with more dramatic fare like "Judas and the Black Messiah" and "Get Out." Both the character of Spider-Punk and Kaluuya himself are from the London borough of Camden, the rock 'n' roll mecca known for its vintage shopping and bustling nightclubs.
Spider-punk's not dead
Written and produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and directed by Kemp Powers, Joaquim Dos Santos, and Justin K Thompson, it appears everyone on board "Across the Spider-Verse" knew how popular Spider-Punk would be. For Kaluuya, the chance to bring his own accent and the Cockney rhyming slang Hobie uses throughout the film was too good to pass up. "I was gassed," he told Empire about coming aboard the sequel. "I turned to Lord, Miller, and Kemp and said, 'Thank you for letting me be a part of it, because this is cool as f***.' I'm a voice in 'Spider-Verse' with a wicked character that sounds exactly like me, from where I'm from."
More specifically, Dos Santos revealed that Kaluuya's accent brought Spider-Punk to life in a way that no other actor could have done. As the director told Collider:
"Daniel Kaluuya is, I think, one of our great actors of our generation. I was surprised, honestly. You know, when I think of Daniel Kaluuya I think of him speaking in an American accent. We watched these interviews with him and it was just him doing this on a talk show, and we set that against the visuals of Spider-Punk as he was being developed, and just seeing a stagnant image of Spider-Punk set to his voice, it jumped off the page."
Seeing the fully realized version of Spider-Punk in the finished film, it's hard to imagine anyone else voicing the role other than Kaluuya. The character is quickly becoming a fan favorite based on the raw, anarchic spirit the actor injects into Spider-Punk and the unique, ransom note animation style that helps separate him from the other Spider-People populating the multiverse.
The real anomaly
Miles becomes Spider-Man in the previous film after being bitten by (you guessed it) a radioactive spider to gain his powers. In (almost) every other version of Earth, that event has to happen in some form or another. Otherwise, the countless citizens of the world are left without their iterations of the friendly neighborhood crime stopper. The spider that bites, Miles, however, is from Earth-42, dooming that world and the people in it to a more chaotic existence where Spider-Man never exists.
Miles becomes an anomaly that throws the multiverse into a state of anarchy. But it might be Spider-Punk who's the real, true anomaly as a character that's constantly rebelling and deviating from the status quo. After spending three years as the leather-clad webslinger on Earth-138, Spider-Punk has been fighting against an authoritarian government that refuses to remove its boot from the necks of the common man. It's his radicalism that winds up compelling Miles to risk tearing up the fabric of the multiverse and defy the entire Spider-Society. Their mission is to reestablish order and protect the Spider-Man canon. Spider-Punk's only goal — and ultimately Miles', too — is to upend the systems of control that are keeping both of them from living the lives they want to live, with no strings attached.
Camden's real-life musical history in the punk scene dates back to 1976 when The Ramones played two gigs over July 4 weekend at the now legendary clubs the Roundhouse and Dingwalls. As legend goes, members of The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Damned, and Chrissy Hynde of The Pretenders were in the audience. "Across the Spider-Verse" uses Spider-Punk as a reverse stand-in for the legendary American punk rock band that came all the way over from CBGB's in NYC to help usher in the UK punk scene. Maybe Spider-Punk only needed an audience of one with Miles Morales in attendance to alter the course of comic book history. What's more punk rock than that?