The following contains spoilers from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, now in theaters.
As Miles Morales found himself entangled in a brand-new web in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, a lot of familiar faces were seen along the way.
Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson, off a screenplay by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and David Callaham, the follow-up to Into the Spider-Verse saw Brooklyn’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man (voiced Shameik Moore) catapulted across the Multiverse, after unexpectedly reuniting with Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld).
The Across the Spider-Verse voice cast also boasts Oscar Isaac (as Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099), Jason Schwartzman (as The Spot), Brian Tyree Henry and Luna Lauren Velez (as Miles’ parents Jeff and Rio), Jake Johnson (as Peter B. Parker), Issa Rae (as Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman), Karan Soni (as Pavitr Prabhakar/Spider-Man India) and Daniel Kaluuya (as “Hobie” Brown/Spider-Punk).
About two-thirds of the way into the movie, Miles is introduced to the Spider Society, which is based out of Miguel O’Hara’s Earth-928 and charged with protecting the Multiverse. As Miles strolls through this Spider People-populated HQ, the IMAX screen is literally crawling wall-to-wall with cameos — mostly animated webslingers from a variety of media (…and animal kingdoms), but there is also one live-action, captured villain (Donald Glover’s Prowler).
What’s more, when Miguel schools Miles on a major disruption he has caused, vignettes used to drive home the point feature clips of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Mans (whereas Tom Holland’s current iteration is obliquely referenced earlier in the film).
But how are TV’s webslingers from over the years represented? Based on just one Saturday-night viewing of Across the Spider-Verse, here is at least a small — but not necessarily definitive! — sampling of who could be spotted on the cameos-packed screen, plus at least one noteworthy absence….
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Spider-Man
Image Credit: Marvel Comics TV’s very first series about Spider-Man debuted in September 1967, as part of ABC’s Saturday-morning cartoon slate. A total of 52 episodes would be produced, including a third season that aired in syndication, with Paul Soles voicing the titular hero.
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Spider-Man Unlimited
Image Credit: Courtesy of Saban Entertainment Considered a loose continuation of the network’s 1994 Spider-Man series, Fox Kids’ Spider-Man Unlimited attempted a fresh take on the hero, borrowing from the Warlock and 2099 mythology for the character, In fact, the series kicked off with storyline that revolved around Counter-Earth — home to The High Evolutionary (a supervillain currently being played by Chukwudi Iwuji in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3). With Rino Romano in the lead role, Unlimited proved to be the opposite, lasting just 13 episodes.
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The Spectacular Spider-Man
Image Credit: Streaming on Disney+ Drawing inspiration from the Amazing Spider-Man comic run by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and John Romita Sr., as well as as the Ultimate Spider-Man comics by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley, this 2008 series debuted on The CW’s kids programming block and in Season 2 moved to Disney XD. A total of 65 episodes were produced, with Josh Keaton voicing the title role.
From where I sat (seat J-20!), this cameo seemed most prominent, with the camera dwelling on the character as he stepped forth from the Spider Society crowd that surrounded newcomer Miles.
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Ultimate Spider-Man‘s Spyder-Knight
Image Credit: Ultimate Spider-Man, ‘The Spider-Verse Part 3’ (Streaming on Disney+ Though I didn’t spot this one firsthand, other eagle-eyed outlets say that Spider-Knight, a character from Disney XD’s Ultimate Spider-Man circa 2012, could be seen in Across the Spider-Verse — which is fitting, since he made his TV debut in the animated series’ Season 3 “The Spider-Verse” arc. Christopher Daniel Barnes (from the 1994 Spider-Man series) voiced Spider-Knight.
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MISSING IN (LIVE-)ACTION: The Amazing Spider-Man
Image Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection Pending a second viewing — or, most ideally, a pause-able rewatch when the film lands on Netflix — Across the Spider-Verse at first glance did not appear to include animated cameos from ABC’s Spider-Woman (circa 1979 and voiced by Joan Van Ark), Fox Kids’ Spider-Man: The Animated Series (circa mid-199os, voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes), MTV’s Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (circa 2003, voiced by Neil Patrick Harris), or Disney XD’s Marvel’s Spider-Man (circa late-2010s, voiced by Robbie Daymond) — but feel free to chime in if you believe you spied any of said webslingers whilst at the Cineplex.
But perhaps most notably, the film’s live-action cameos appear to have snubbed CBS’ The Amazing Spider-Man, which debuted in September 1977 and ran for just 13 episodes, with American-Australian actor Nicholas Hammond in the title role.
And this would not be the first time Hammond felt snubbed, having not been included, in any manner, in 2021’s Spider-Mans-filled Spider-Man: No Way Home.
“It would have been a kick in the pants to have the old guy there,” Hammond told THR in November 2021. “I was really hoping I would be approached, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.”
YouTube screenshot
Similarly, TV’s first live-action Spidey, seen as a reoccurring character on the PBS show The Electric Company, was a no-show on the big screen.
What did you think of Across the Universe, and what was your favorite cameo?var pd_tags = new Array;pd_tags[“12360783-src”]=”poll-oembed-simple”;
