Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Director Reminds Us Spot Is Not In Costume, “It’s His Skin”

Last week, audiences learned that the central antagonist of the upcoming Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will be Spot, a fairly obscure Spider-Man villain who has the ability to teleport by drawing on powers within his own body. Not unlike Spider-Man’s black costume, Venom, or some of the other symbiotes floating around the Spider-Man comics, Spot has a stark, two-color look…but unlike those others, Spot’s look is not a costume (living or not). Instead, by accessing his powers, his body was transformed, and his bizarre look is what his body actually looks like.

Originally created by Al Milgrom and Herb Trimpe in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #98, Jonathan Ohnn is a villain whose body has pent up energy from “the spotted dimension,” and can use it to teleport. His skin is bleached white, and features dark spots, with the spots being able to be drawn on to power his abilities.  

“From the very beginning he just seemed like endless potential, both visually and arc of the character,” Kemp Powers, one of the film’s other directors, told Cartoon Brew in a recent interview. “Because you know by the way that’s not a costume, that’s his skin. By the way that he’s wearing it you know it’s not a guy in a polka dot suit. That’s actually his skin. So you know, the arc of Dr. Ohnn/Spot is one that does really complement, without giving away the story, it really does complement the the journey of Miles in this film really well.”

You can see the video below.

In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Miles Morales / Spider-Man (Shameik Moore) goes on an adventure across the multiverse with Gwen Stacy / Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld) and a new team of Spider-People who must face a powerful villain. Also returning from the first film are Oscar Isaac as Miguel O’Hara / Spider-Man 2099, and Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker / Spider-Man. Issa Rae has also joined the cast as Jessica Drew / Spider-Woman.

Across the Spider-Verse is directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, with a script from Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Dave Callaham.

“This is a situation where the movie was so ambitious, it was trying to do so many groundbreaking things in its visual style, in its storytelling style, in its cinematic style.” Miller previously explained to ComicBook.com. “Everything about it … The sound mix was probably going to be groundbreaking, so it required a lot of work. Every version of these movies is a collaboration of hundreds of filmmakers working together, and in the best versions people are contributing their creative ideas, and the people, the directors, and the producers are the ones that get to decide which of the things fit the road that you’re going down.”

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will be in theaters on June 2, 2023.