Credit: Sony Pictures AnimationIn a recent interview, the directors of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) revealed that they almost had to cut one of the best cameos in the film.
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Across the Spider-Verse is easily one of the best superhero films ever made, with gorgeous animation, an epic soundtrack, a heartbreaking story, and incredible performances from the likes of Shameik Moore (Miles Morales), Hailee Steinfeld (Gwen Stacy), Oscar Isaac (Miguel O’Hara), Jake Johnson (Peter B. Parker), Issa Rae (Jessica Drew), and Jason Schwartzman (The Spot).
One of the best parts of the film was all of the cameos and references to previous Spider-Man projects, including old video games, comics set in an alternate universe, and even the live-action Spider-Men (Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland). However, one Spider-Man actor almost didn’t make it into the movie’s final cut.
‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ Almost Lost Its Best Cameo
In a recent interview with Collider, directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson spoke about multiple facets of Across the Spider-Verse, including the arduous process of getting everything done. In fact, Powers had a story about one iconic moment that almost didn’t make the cut.
“There were several things in those previews that we hadn’t really sorted out yet like you guys probably remember the Donald Glover cameo — he hadn’t agreed to do it yet. So in the preview, we had, like, a South Park-style cardboard cutout of Donald Glover. He was like, ‘Hai, I’m Donald Glover,’ and he was just like a flappy head, and everyone was cracking up. I’m like, ‘Is anyone gonna call Donald Glover and see if he’s gonna do this cameo?'”
Powers continued:
“We recorded him just a few weeks before the film came out, so it was kind of crazy because it was like, the film still wasn’t quite all there, but it was there. That was a story we knew we were trying to tell, so I started feeling pretty good about it then.”
Although he has never been a main character in a Spider-Man film, Donald Glover is still important to Spider-History since there was a massive online movement at one point for him to play Miles Morales in live-action, an experience he noted in his stand-up special.
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Since then, he has been included in multiple Spider-Man projects: Homecoming (2017), Into the Spider-Verse (2018), Across the Spider-Verse, and the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series. Time will tell if he appears in Beyond the Spider-Verse (2025) to make a multiversal hat trick.
In a movie with so much going on, it’s not surprising that some things got left to the last minute or cut. Fortunately, the Donald Glover cameo was the former, leading to arguably the best easter egg in the entire film.
Who was your favorite Spider-Person in Across the Spider-Verse? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!