How The Most Surprising Moment Of Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Was Created
This post contains spoilers for "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse."
It feels almost blasphemous to look at "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," a mind-blowing achievement in animated filmmaking and a funny and heartfelt story about growing up, and boil it down to a favorite Easter egg or cameo. The movie itself seems intended almost to overwhelm Easter egg hunters into submission. It purposely throws more visual gags, guest voices, and references at audiences than we can count, filling every frame with homages to Spider-People past and present, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and more. "Spider-Verse" isn't above a good Easter egg hunt, but it turns the tradition into a joyous, chaotic art form that's just one element of a wholly satisfying story.
With all of that in mind, there's still one major Easter egg cameo we need to talk about, because it's one that ties back to the very inception of Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) as a character. As Spidey fans probably already know, Miles was created by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli in 2011, partly in response to a particular conversation that had recently happened about the casting of the next live-action "Spider-Man" movie. In 2010, rising star Donald Glover, by then already an actor, writer, rapper, and comedian, mentioned that he'd like to play Spider-Man. Fans ran with it, campaigning with the hashtag #donald4spiderman. More than a decade later, the ripple effect of that event led to the most surprising moment in "Across the Spider-Verse."
The Prowler returns
While Andrew Garfield ended up inside the web-slinging suit instead of Glover, the idea of a Black Spider-Man in general — and Glover in the role in particular — stayed on the minds of the pop culture powers that be. Glover wore Spider-Man pajamas in an episode of "Community," popped up as the Prowler in Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures' "Spider-Man: Homecoming," and ultimately inspired the creation of the Miles Morales character in the comics. He also voiced Miles in "Ultimate Spider-Man," but when "Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse" came out, the actor was nowhere to be found. Luckily, "Across the Spider-Verse" remedied that, as Glover appears as a live-action Prowler captured in a containment chamber in the new movie.
According to "Across the Spider-Verse" directors Kemp Powers and Joaquim Dos Santos, the fan-favorite cameo didn't actually come together until the very last minute. In an interview with Variety, the filmmakers explained that the sequence didn't even appear in earlier test screenings of the film. "It was shot at a studio in New York. Chris Miller flew to be there in person, and Phil Lord and I were on the video feed giving direction," Powers told the outlet. He added, "We got it in at the 11th hour. As a matter of fact, even in audience preview screenings, it was a little cardboard cutout of Donald Glover."
Test audiences saw a cardboard Donald Glover
My theater gasped when Glover appeared, and while it might sound silly to think they would've done the same if we'd been looking at a cardboard cutout of him instead, it sounds like test audiences were still super-hyped about the potential cameo — despite the lack of actual flesh-and-blood actor in the version they saw. "We knew it was still going to land, though, because the idea of it still got people geeked," Dos Santos shared. "That's when you know you have something."
The Prowler cameo not only brings Glover back into the fold while allowing him a supervillain upgrade, but it also confirms the Tom Holland "Spider-Man" movies as a canonical part of the Spider-Verse, along with "Venom" and the Garfield and Tobey Maguire versions of the character. While references to those movies used B-roll and old clips, though, Glover got to show up in person just long enough to look super cool and make theater-goers shriek in delighted surprise. It's an incredible power move from the guy who was once subject to racist backlash for a role he didn't even get. Glover not only inspired Miles Morales, but he's now been a cheer-worthy part of the character's story every step of the way — even in cardboard form.
"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is now in theaters.