Warning: This article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse features a cornucopia of actors who already have history in the superhero genre, from Moon Knight‘s Oscar Isaac as Spider-Man 2099 to Hailee Steinfeld pulling double duty as both Kate Bishop and Spider-Gwen. What you might not have realized, though, is that a couple of surprise cameos in the universally beloved sequel mean the franchise occupies a unique place in the venn diagram of Marvel’s Spider-Man and DC’s Superman.
The film opens with a recap of Gwen Stacy’s origin story, explaining how her best friend, the Peter Parker of her world (Earth-65), died after becoming the Lizard. If this Peter’s voice was familiar to you that’s because he’s voiced by Jack Quaid, star of The Boys, Scream, and Star Trek: Lower Decks. And, it just so happens, the upcoming Adult Swim series My Adventures with Superman, in which he will play Clark Kent himself.
Thanks to Across, then, Quaid now joins a very select club of actors who have played both Spidey and Supes — and, funnily enough, all of them appear in the Spider-Verse movies. Another is Yuri Lowenthal, who portrayed a young Superman in 2006’s Legion of Superheroes animated series and, of course, voices Peter Parker in Sony’s Spider-Man video games. Fans of those will get a big kick out of his small cameo as the Insomniac Spidey in Across.
Last but not least, the third and final actor to have embodied pop culture’s two most popular superheroes who are actually guys who work at a newspaper is one of the best parts of 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse. Yes, it’s Nicolas Cage, who was fantastic as Spider-Man Noir the first time around but sadly does not reprise his role here. The good news is that Cage is instead finally bringing his infamous canned incarnation of Kal-El to life in this summer’s The Flash.
All I’m saying is, if James Gunn made an Into the Super-Verse animated flick happen after Superman: Legacy, the fans would go wild…
