Trivia / Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

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• Acting for Two:
  • Jorma Taccone voices both the Green Goblin and the 1967 "Animated Meme" Spider-Man.
  • Happens a bit in the Japanese dub:
    • Tetsu Inada voices both the Prowler and 1967 "Animated Meme" Spider-Man
    • Satoshi Tsuruoka voices both Tombstone and Green Goblin.
• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Peter B. Parker is subtly implied to be Jewish. Jake Johnson is Jewish on his father's side.
  • Peni Parker is Japanese-American, much like her voice actress Kimiko Glenn.
  • Tombstone is an Albino African-American, which is reflected by his voice actor Marvin Jones III.
• Adored by the Network:
  • FX loves this movie and plays it very frequently on their network. 9 out 10 if you pass by the channel, this movie will be on the lineup.
  • Since Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox, which included Fox's entertainment cable channels, this allows the company to share programming rights between FX and their own basic cable channel, Freeform. So now Into the Spider-Verse is prominently shown on two major cable networks.
• All-Star Cast:
  • The cast is filled with all sorts of big names like Liev Schreiber, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Lauren Velez, John Mulaney, Nicolas Cage, Kimiko Glenn, Kathryn Hahn, Lily Tomlin, Oscar Isaac and Lake Bell. In fact, the least prolific among them might be Shameik Moore as Miles himself, and even he's had some roles to his name.
  • The Japanese dub isn't a slouch on this either: We have Yūichi Nakamura as Peter Parker, Mamoru Miyano as Peter B. Parker, Kensho Ono as Miles Morales, Aoi Yūki as Gwen Stacy, Akio Ōtsuka as Spider-Man Noir, Hiroyuki Yoshino as Spider-Ham, Rie Takahashi as Peni Parker, Tesshō Genda as the Kingpin, Kenji Nomura as Jefferson Davis, Yuko Kaida as Mary Jane, Kenta Miyake as Scorpion, Atsuko Tanaka as Vanessa Fisk, Tetsu Inada as Aaron Davis, Akeno Watanabe as Dr. Olivia, Yoko Soumi as Aunt May, and both Tomokazu Seki and Maaya Sakamoto as both Spider-Man 2099 and Lyla respectively
• Approval of God:
  • Edgar Wright responded to the inclusion of a From Dusk Til Shaun poster by telling people to see this movie.
  • Tom Holland, the actor of Spider-Man for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, approved of the film.
  • Andrew Garfield, who played Spider-Man in the The Amazing Spider-Man Series, said that he loved the film, calling it "incredibly inventive."
• Baby Name Trend Starter:
  • The surprise critical and commercial acclaim of the movie made "Miles", an already popular name, jump 23 places from 98th to 75th in 2019, and continued to grow to 54th place by 2020.
  • "Gwen", an uncommon name, saw a big bump in popularity, jumping 82 places from 909th to 827th place in 2019.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: A popular subtitled screenshot◊ of Kingpin claiming that "Business is boomin'!" has been taken from his dialogue with Peter Parker. The latter asks, "How's business?", to which Kingpin responds, "Boomin'."
• Casting Gag: In the Danish dub, the old man who sells Miles his suit (Stan Lee) is voiced by Jakob Stegelmann, the grand old man of geek culture in Denmark.
• Colbert Bump: Peni Parker went from being pretty obscure and overlooked^note Her comic counterpart was created solely for the 2014 Spider-Verse crossover event, with only two one-shots and a handful of non-speaking cameos to her name by the time the movie released to getting tons of searches and fan-art practically overnight following her trailer reveal. She was the most searched main character in the movie because of it, by far, especially in Japan.
• Completely Different Title:
  • The movie is titled Spider-Man: New Generation in France (still in English, somehow).
  • In Germany it is called Spider-Man: A New Universe also similarly still in English.
  • In Latin America and Spain, the movie is titled Spider-Man: Un Nuevo Universo ("A New Universe" in Spanish). The Chinese language release also uses "New Universe" (in Mandarin of course) and Korean too.
  • In Polish, the film is titled simply Spider-Man: Universe.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Not that it matters as much since it's animation, but 38-year-old Chris Pine plays a 26-year-old Peter Parker. 30-year-old Zoë Kravitz plays his spouse, the mid-twenties Mary Jane Watson.
  • The teenage Miles Morales is voiced by 23-year-old Shameik Moore, while Gwen is voiced by 22-year-old Hailee Steinfeld. ^note Funny enough, despite being voiced by the younger actor, Gwen notes in the film that she's 15 months older than Miles.
  • Only slightly, but 40-year-old Jake Johnson plays the late-thirties Peter B. Parker.
  • José Santa Cruz, the Brazilian VA who had voiced Jameson in the second dub of Spider-Man (1967) and reprised his role for the 1967 meme scene, was 89 at the time of recording.
• Defictionalization: A Spider-Man Christmas album, with songs sung by members of the cast, was actually released to coincide with the film. It features "Spidey Bells" and "Up on the Housetop" by blonde Peter, while Miles, Peter B. and Earth-67 Peter get a track each.
• Development Gag: If you freeze-frame Spider-Ham's flashback at the beginning or look in the background in his final appearance, the hot dog place he's shown getting one from is called Uncle Frankfurter's. His cut line from the "You can't save everybody" sequence (mentioned in What Could Have Been) revealed Uncle Frankfurter to be that universe's equivalent of Ben Parker.
• Deleted Scene: In a rarity for an animated film, Spider-Verse has 10 minutes worth of completed animation that was cut from the final film.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Both Tombstone and his voice actor, Marvin "Krondon" Jones, are albino.
• Fake Mixed Race: Miles is Afro-Latino but his voice actor, Shameik Moore, is Jamaican-American.
• Foiler Footage:
  • There is a scene in the teaser trailer where Miles is seen chasing after Prowler. In the movie proper, it's actually Peter and he is not chasing anybody.
  • In an audio example, Chris Pine's role as Miles' first Peter Parker was kept under wraps until the film's release. In the trailers, his opening narration is read by Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker, making it seem like the two Peters were the same character.
  • One of the preview clips for the movie features Miles and Peter escaping Alchemax with a computer, being chased by scientists and then being rescued by Gwen after Peter glitches. The scene plays mostly the same in the movie, with a few notable exemptions: Dr. Olivia, aka Doctor Octopus, is chasing Miles and Peter too in the film proper, and gets into a fight with Gwen as well.
• Follow the Leader: The movie's success has started a trend of Painted CGI action-comedy animated movies in the early 20s, such as The Mitchells vs. the Machines, The Bad Guys (2022), Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, most of which have explicitly cited this film's art style for their inspiration.
• Genre Relaunch: For a genre whose initial "launch" didn't really take the first time: animated action/adventure movies aimed at teenage audiences. A number of these movies were high-profile failures, especially in the early 2000s, and the genre was often thought of as box-office poison for a long time afterwards.
• In Memoriam: The film is dedicated to the memory of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, co-creators of Spider-Man. Both died in 2018, the year of the film's release. The movie deals with the death of their famed creation, Peter Parker, while Miles Morales tries to take up the Spider-Mantle à la Ultimate Spider-Man.
• Kids' Meal Toy: McDonald's had a set of six figures with sticker decals in their Happy Meals.
• Missing Trailer Scene:
  • The trailer scene where Peter Parker compares Miles's universe to a soggy, gross fry is absent in the movie itself. Apparently, it was removed out of concern that it would both slow down the movie and be explaining information the audience already understood. And because Legion (2017) also had a scene where a character uses french fries to explain alternate universes.
  • The scene where Peter and Miles sit in the subway discussing "saving one person" is also absent. Word of God confirmed it's an animation test footage.
  • In the trailer only, Gwen's introduction as Spider-Woman has her landing on a tree branch en pointe and rising gracefully to her feet.
• Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor: Joaquín Cosío voices Scorpion in both the original English and also in the Latin American Spanish dub.
• Orphaned Reference: A very minor one. In the deleted scenes of the fight in Aunt May's house, Sp//dr was too tall for the ceiling, causing the mech to break the ceiling and have a toilet from the floor above fall onto its head. Later on in the fight scene, Spider-Ham would use said toilet against Tombstone. In the final cut of the movie, Ham suddenly just has a toilet bowl to use with no explanation as to how it got into the living room.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Jorma Taccone fills in for Paul Soles as the 1967 Spider-Man. On that note, the film's Associate Production Manager, Adam Brown, voiced Jameson in place of the late Paul Kligman.
  • The same goes in the Japanese dub, as Tetsu Inada replaces Hideyuki Tanaka as the 1967 Spidey, even though the latter is still alive and active as a voice actor.
• Playing Against Type: Those familiar with Brian Tyree Henry's Star-Making Role as the grumpy and worldly drug dealer/rapper Paper Boi in Atlanta may be a bit surprised to hear him voicing a loving father who is also a police officer.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: It was widely believed that Stan Lee voiced the 1967 version of J. Jonah Jameson. The film's Associate Editor, Andrew Leviton, debunked this rumor, clarifying that the character was voiced by Associate Production Manager, Adam Brown.
• Posthumous Credit:
  • The film was released a month after Stan Lee's death. He has a role appearing as one of his many cameos.
  • Cliff Robertson's voice is reused via archival audio from the Spider-Man Trilogy. He died in 2011.
• Production Nickname: According to the screenplay and art-book, the production nickname for Miles' Peter is RIPeter. Peter B. was known as Burrito Peter due to an him eating those instead of pizza in an earlier version of the film. The Spider-Man from the 1967 cartoon who appears after the credits is referred to as ‘67 Animated Meme Spider-Man!
• Prop Recycling: A variant. The Lizard shown in silhouette in Gwen's recap flashback is a heavily modified Green Goblin model.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, 1967 Spider-Man is voiced by Leo Martins, whose father Alfredo had voiced Spidey in the first dub of said series.
  • In the Norwegian dub, Peter B. Parker and Mary Jane are voiced by Anders Bye and Siri Nilsen, who are married in real life.
• Reality Subtext:
  • Stan Lee's Creator Cameo features a line noting that he'll miss Spider-Man. This carried extra poignance when the movie was released several months after his death.
  • One scene has Scorpion dismiss Spider-Ham as "just a cartoon," who replies "You got a problem with cartoons?" before delivering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. This is almost certainly a commentary on the Animation Age Ghetto and how many critics were skeptical about an animated Spider-Man movie before its release.
• Refitted for Sequel: Peter B.'s story arc reuses ideas from the unmade Spider-Man 4, specifically him divorcing Mary Jane. The original script had it come as a result of him cheating on her and ended with him abandoning her and their child, but Sam Raimi felt that this made Peter come across as an unlikable jerk, contributing to the problems that ultimately got the film scrapped. Spider-Verse tackles the problem by giving it a much more mundane and tragic explanation — Peter B. simply underwent a mid-life crisis that went From Bad to Worse after Aunt May died, causing him to act in an impulsive and self-destructive manner that ruined his marriage. It also ends on a much happier note, with him regaining his resolve and trying to patch things up with MJ.
• Release Date Change: The film was originally slated for release on July 20, 2018, before being moved to December 21 at the end of 2015 and then up one week in 2017.
• Role Reprise:
  • Via archive audio, the late Cliff Robertson briefly reprises his role as Uncle Ben from the Spider-Man Trilogy.
  • In the Latin-American Spanish dub, Edson Matus, who voiced Spidey in MAD and the Marvel Adventures: Iron Man animated shorts' dubs, reprises the role for the trailer^note Miguel Ángel Ruiz has the role in the actual film.
  • Armando Coria, who also voiced Peter Parker in the Latin American dub of Spider-Man: The Animated Series, also comes back as Peter for the trailer... albeit, the 1930s version that is Spider-Man Noir^note In the actual film, it's Salvador Delgado (who's dubbed numerous Nicolas Cage roles).
  • Also from the same dubbed version, Humberto Solórzano reprises his role as J. Jonah Jameson from the original live-action trilogy in The Stinger.^note Also overlaps with The Other Darrin, as his previous voice actor from the 1967 series, Antonio Passy, died years ago.
  • The Brazilian Dub has the voice actors of Peter Parker, Mary Jane, Green Goblin and Aunt May in the Raimi trilogy reprise their roles, fittingly considering the "main" Peter Parker gets several callbacks to the Raimi Trilogy. José Santa Cruz also reprises his role as J. Jonah Jameson from the 1967 cartoon in The Stinger, whom he voiced on both the second dub of the 1967 series and in the Raimi Trilogy.
  • In the Japanese dub, Mary Jane is voiced by Yuko Kaida, who already voiced her in many of the animated adaptations, mainly in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Spider-Man Unlimited and Ultimate Spider-Man (2012). Also from the same dub, Tesshō Genda reprises his role as the Kingpin from Spider-Man (PS4).
  • In the Norwegian dub, Miles is voiced by Nahom Feshatzion, who also voiced Miles in both Marvel's Spider-Man and the preschool animated series Marvel Super Hero Adventures.
• Shrug of God:
  • Rodney Rothman personally thinks Peter B. Parker is indeed Jewish, but willingly leaves it up in the air for whether or not he already was or converted for Mary Jane.
  • When asked if Aunt May and Olivia Octavius have ever dated, Peter Ramsey's response was that "there's a universe where that is true" but stayed coy on whether that universe is Miles's.
• Sleeper Hit:
  • This film had a good but not great opening weekend with $35 million in the US but still managed to be #1. The following week was when all the big-budget live-action films came out for Christmas, including Aquaman (2018), Mary Poppins Returns, and Bumblebee, and it dropped to #4. As the winter went on, it began to hold much better than its competition, likely because after Christmas there was no reason for anyone to see The Grinch which was the only other kids' movie out. It managed to pass Mary Poppins Returns both internationally and domestically even though it made $58 million in its opening weekend and stomped Bumblebee 's domestic total by over $50 million. It stayed in the top five for seven weeks and eight weekends. It was even "leggier" than the billion-dollar juggernaut Aquaman as this managed to 5.29x its opening weekend whereas Aquaman 's multiplier was 4.6x.
  • To further illustrate how the film caught on beyond its modest opening weekend, its sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse opened with $120 million in the U.S.; it took Into three weeks to gross what Across did in three days.
• Throw It In!:
  • Peni rolling into the living room on heelys was due to the animators realizing that there wasn't enough time for her to simply walk.
  • The Stinger was added so late into production that the animation was finalized before the voices were recorded, but the improv that the two actors came up with was so hilarious that the scene was reanimated to match — with only one animator left on the project! The cutaway to the police officer and J. Jonah Jameson was thrown in to extend the joke even further, with them being voiced by Assistant Editor Andy Leviton and Associate Production Manager Adam Brown. The scene was finished so close to release that it didn't make it into the Chinese theatrical release.
• Voices in One Room: It's not with everyone and not all the time, but Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, and Brian Tyree Henry did occasionally record together.
• What Could Have Been: See here.

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