Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Director Reveals How Shocking Variant Evolved

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse‘s director just revealed some new details about the shocking twist near the end. Fans of the movie remember Miles Morales coming face-to-face with himself at the tail end of the Sony Animated movie. So, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse director Justin K. Thompson had to outline what changed for Miles G. Morales in the new art book for the film. (Go read Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: The Art of the Movie, by Ramin Zahed. There are tons of other amazing nuggets in the pages for you to find.) It turns out, not getting bitten by that spider changed the life course of the Miles Morales from Earth 42. Darkly, you could probably consider that his “canon event.”

“Miles comes face to face with this other version of himself and realizes that because one thing dropped the other way, everything changed due to the ‘butterfly effect,’ where one small change can result in later changes to a deterministic nonlinear system—in this case an entire reality,” Thompson explained (h/t to @GL2814_3!). “Internally, we decided to call this parallel-world version ‘Miles G. Morales’ to avoid confusion.”

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Why Do People Love Miles Morales So Much?

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse proves how much people love Miles Morales. When it comes down to it, they just enjoy the character and his family. All the Spider-shenanigans are a bonus. When Comicbook.com’s Aaron Perine spoke to the directors, they argued that getting the Morales dynamic right was more important than any Multiverse implications

“I mean, look, that’s, we’ve all been on that journey too,” co-director Justin K. Thompson told us. “I’ve been at the end of the line where I’m like, I don’t know what the next step is for me. I will say animation saved my life. I was at a point in my life where I was like, I don’t know what’s going to happen next. I don’t know. And it was animation that sort of came in and swept me off my feet and provided for me. So I think that relatability again is something we can impose on Miles and wonder what is he going to do? What’s the thing that’s going to save Miles?”

Co-director Joaquim Dos Santos added, “I think, I think as long as we focus on our characters, as long as we focus on why he’s doing what he’s doing and why it matters, I think that will always be our North Star no matter what. But I can tell you, I can promise you it’s going to be amazing. It’s going to be spectacular. It’s going to be fantastic. It’s going to be Spider Man.”

Miles G. Morales Isn’t The Only Special Prowler Here

So, Miles is The Prowler in Universe 42. But, there’s another special version of the villain in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. It feels like everyone was talking about Donald Glover popping in as a live-action variant of The Prowler midway through the movie. The directors talked to Variety about how they managed to snag the cameo.

“It was shot at a studio in New York,” Kemp Powers explained. “Chris Miller flew to be there in person, and Phil Lord and I were on the video feed giving direction. We got it in at the 11th hour. As a matter of fact, even in audience preview screenings, it was a little cardboard cutout of Donald Glover.”

“We knew it was still going to land, though, because the idea of it still got people geeked,” Dos Santos continued. “That’s when you know you have something.”

Do you think The Prowler will help Miles? Let us know in the comments!