Daniel Kaluuya’s Spider-Punk Joins ‘Across the Spider-Verse’
The Spider-Verse is getting even bigger.
While the upcoming Into the Spider-Verse sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, will feature many of the characters from the original animated hit like Shameik Moore’s Miles Morales and Hailee Steinfeld’s Spider-Gwen, there will be new characters as well, including Oscar Isaac’s Spider-Man 2099 (who had a very brief cameo at the end of Into the Spider-Verse’s closing credits) and Jason Schwartzman as the super-villain the Spot.
Among the new cast members: The dynamic looking “Spider-Punk” who will be voiced in the film, per a variety of trade reports, by Nope and Black Panther star Daniel Kaluuya. First introduced in 2015’s The Amazing Spider-Man #10, Spider-Punk comes from an alternate dimension where Hobie Brown (AKA the Prowler in the main Marvel Universe) gets spider powers and uses them to rebel against his dimensions version of Norman Osborn, who is the President of the United States.
While Kaluuya playing the character is news, the fact that Spider-Punk would be in the film is not completely a surprise. For months, toy store shelves have been filled with Across the Spider-Verse “Spider-Punk Web Blast” branded guitars.
If said toys are to be believed there are several other still-technically unannounced Spider-Man characters who will appear in the film. (If you don’t want these minor spoilers, skip to the next paragraph). Other merchandise for Across the Spider-Verse (which was originally supposed to open this fall and thus had a bunch of its toys hit shelves months before the film’s release) includes pictures of the Scarlet Spider; Hasbro has also already released a “Cyborg Spider-Woman” figure, a new concept that’s loosely based on the Cyborg Spider-Man who appeared in 1990s Marvel Comics. (That guy was just Peter Parker with a few short-lived robotic enhancements.)
Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, and written by Phil Lord, Chris Miller, and David Callaham, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is scheduled to open in theaters on June 2, 2023. (A second sequel will follow in 2024.) Here is the first trailer for the film: