If there’s one factor Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse isn’t missing, it’s Easter eggs. Whether it’s the movie’s temporary journey to the identical universe because the Venom films or its a number of references to Sony’s standard Spider-Man video video games, Across the Spider-Verse repeatedly proves that it isn’t afraid to pay homage to the varied different superhero movies and titles which have come earlier than it. The film even packs in a short however noteworthy reference to the occasions of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Most of Across the Spider-Verse’s greatest Easter eggs seem throughout its journey to Nueva York, the house metropolis of Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac). The movie’s detour there offers it the prospect to dive into the trivia of the multiverse in a means that neither it nor 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse had beforehand.
It additionally offers Across the Spider-Verse the chance to function a live-action cameo from none aside from Donald Glover, an actor whose on-screen Spider-Man historical past could also be a bit restricted, however whose offscreen influence on the Spider-Verse franchise can’t be overstated.
Outside of his cameo in Across the Spider-Verse, Donald Glover has solely ever appeared in a single different Spider-Man film. The actor famously performed the position of Aaron Davis a.ok.a. The Prowler in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. He was, notably, by no means given the prospect to don his character’s iconic Prowler swimsuit within the movie, however a largely comedic scene he shared with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker did open the door for him to reference his “nephew,” which well-versed comedian e book followers instantly knew on the time was a nod to Miles Morales.
With all that in thoughts, Glover seems very briefly in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse as an anomalous model of The Prowler who was captured by Miguel O’Hara and his Spider Society pals. The cameo lets Glover do what Spider-Man: Homecoming didn’t and put on a live-action model of The Prowler’s armor. It additionally lets him work together on-screen with Shameik Moore’s animated iteration of Miles Morales. The scene, in different phrases, lastly lets Glover’s Aaron Davis share a second with, on the very least, a model of his nephew that he referenced six years in the past in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Of course, the scene’s significance goes far past its connections to Glover’s small position in Homecoming. As Marvel followers will seemingly bear in mind, Miles Morales made his comedian e book debut in 2011. That similar yr, Brian Michael Bendis, who co-created the character with artist Sara Pichelli, revealed that Miles was partly impressed by Glover and, in particular, his temporary look in Spider-Man pajamas within the season 2 premiere of the NBC sitcom, Community.
Glover’s Spider-Man pajamas in that episode had been famously a reference to the failed on-line marketing campaign that was run within the hopes that the actor would get an audition for the lead position in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man. Glover didn’t, after all, find yourself getting an opportunity to play the position in that movie, which finally went to Andrew Garfield. However, Bendis confirmed in a 2011 interview with USA Today that Glover nonetheless did get to make an influence on the general historical past of the Spider-Man mythos.
In that interview, the comedian e book author addressed Glover’s Community Easter egg and stated, “He seemed unbelievable! I noticed him within the costume and thought, ‘I wish to learn that e book.’ So I used to be glad I used to be writing that e book.”
All of that is to say that Glover’s temporary cameo in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse carries much more weight than it might initially seem. When Miles interacts with the actor within the movie, he’s interacting with somebody who performed a serious position in his creation. Much just like the temporary look of Glover’s well-known Community episode in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (see: the video above), the actor’s cameo in Across the Spider-Verse is a meta nod on the a part of the movie’s makers to Miles Morales’ precise, real-life origin story.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now enjoying in theaters.
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