The most surprising Spider Variants in ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’

Multiverses and cameos are all the rage right now, and yet films such as last year’s Marvel Studios effort Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the incoming DC blockbuster The Flash have been criticized for arguably letting the tail wag the dog and putting cameos and universal crossovers before telling a good story. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, however, gets to have its cake and eat it.

The critically and fan acclaimed Sony animated sequel goes even further than either of those two movies when it comes to squeezing in as many comic book nerd-pleasing cameos as possible and yet it manages to do so in a way that doesn’t come at the expense of an emotional and character-driven narrative. Chances are that when you emerge from the theater after seeing it, you’re thinking of the journey Miles Morales goes on across the film rather than this cameo or that one.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of mind-blowing multiversal moments in the sequel, thanks to an absolute avalanche of Spider-Variants of all shapes and sizes appearing throughout. Despite there being literally dozens packed in, let’s do the impossible and whittle it down to just the most surprising of the lot.

Honorary (Spider-)mentions

The vast majority of the Spider-Verse cameos in Across naturally come during the sequences set at the Spider-Society’s HQ in Nueva York in Miguel O’Hara’s home dimension. Specifically, a range of oddball or unexpected Spider-People engage in the big chase scene that occurs when Miguel orders a manhunt for the escaping Miles. Among their number is Spider-Cat, Spider-Monkey, Spider-Horse, Chibi Spider-Man, Manga Spider-Man, Spinneret and Spiderling (that’s Mary Jane and Annie Parker), Sun Spider, the Bombastic Bag-Man and even Supaidaman aka the 1978 Japanese Spider-Man.

Spider-Man Unlimited

’90s kids, rejoice! Against all the odds, the Spidey from the once little-remembered 1999 animated series Spider-Man: Unlimited returns to life in Across the Spider-Verse. He appears pretty prominently too, standing next to Miguel during the big confrontation scene with Miles. His sizeable amount of screentime must surely be compensation for Miguel stealing his theme tune.

Spider-Rex

Whether you’re familiar with Spider-Rex from the comics or not, the appearance of a T-Rex in Spider-Man cosplay joining in the chase for Miles — and very nearly swallowing him up — was certainly one of the sequence’s biggest surprises. If you’re curious to know more, Pter Ptarker aka Spider-Rex got his powers when he was hit by a meteorite containing an alien spider.

Spectacular Spider-Man

Spectacular Spider-Man is for TV Spideys what Andrew Garfield is for the movies — the one that got away too soon. The beloved animated series was tragically curtailed after just two seasons back in 2009, so it meant a lot to fans of the show to see this Peter return in Spider-Verse. Especially as voice actor Josh Keaton even got to reprise his role for one emotional line to Miles.

Earth-65 Peter

In a fun twist on the format, Across kicks off by recapping the origins of Earth-65’s Spider-Woman, aka Gwen Stacy, in a sequence that is shocking for its pinpoint comics accuracy. Just as in Spider-Gwen’s backstory on the page, Gwen was bitten by the spider instead of Peter, causing the bullied kid to become this Earth’s Lizard. An even bigger surprise is that The Boys‘ Jack Quaid voices him.

Insomniac Spider-Man

Thanks to the trailers, we knew the Peter Parker from Insomniac’s PlayStation games was going to show up in Across, in a bit of corporate synergy from Sony that should leave execs salivating, but we didn’t expect him to actually get a line of dialogue. The hilarious cameo means performer Yuri Lowenthal joins Quaid and Into‘s Nicolas Cage in an elite club of Spidey/Superman actors.

LEGO Spider-Man

Producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller brilliantly hark back to their work on Warner Bros.’ LEGO movies with one extended sequence set in LEGO Spider-Man’s universe. The whole thing is rendered in wonderfully old-school stop-motion animation, as provided by one talented 14-year-old animator. It gets even funnier when we learn LEGO Spidey is one of the dark and brooding Miguel’s favorites.

SP//dr, Spider-Man Noir, and Spider-Ham

In many ways, it shouldn’t be surprising that Miles and Gwen’s three allies from Into the Spider-Verse return in Across, but the trailers had primed us not to expect anything from them. Peni Parker has the biggest role, in a dramatic moment that reveals she’s allied with Miguel, but the movie’s final shots see her and Miles once again on the same team, with Noir and Peter Porker making silent cameos. Here’s to more of them in Beyond!

Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire

There’s no question who the two most surprising Spider-Variants who show up in Across the Spider-Verse are, however. Thanks to some nifty repurposed archival footage, both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s wallcrawlers feature in the sequel, with the deaths of their Uncle Bens and Garfield’s Gwen and Captain Stacy illustrating the importance of Canon Events to the multiverse. Presumably Sony is holding back a Tom Holland cameo for Beyond, but at least we get a reference to that “little nerd on Earth-199999.”