Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse swung into theaters this weekend and looks set to be just as big of a commercial hit as a critical one. Featuring an original, inventive storyline and diverse cast of characters, the movie is a joy to watch and a technical marvel to boot as Miles Morales story was finally brought to the big screen in a vibrant and visually stunning world.
Now, writers and producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller have talked about some of the movie's biggest spoilers in a new interview, including the decision to make Doc Ock a woman!
"It’s an alternate universe, so any chance we had to say, 'This is sort of like the thing you know, but slightly different,' we were trying to take that at every turn," Miller explained. "How can we make a Doc Ock that isn’t the Doc Ock you know? It seemed like a fun twist, and Kathryn Hahn is amazing in everything that she does, and she brought a lot of personality to it, so it was great."
"Everything about her incarnation of Doc is different, down to the way her tentacles work," Lord adds. "They’re pneumatic, like plastic, bubbly arms. Just to make it feel totally updated."
As for the post-credits scene, the filmmakers talked about wanting to put Spider-Man 2099 in a really unique position (the classic Spider-Man animated series from the 1960s in this instance) and teased a return for Miguel O'Hara somewhere down the line.
"What’s the worst situation we could put him in?" Lord laughs. "He’s really maintaining a degree of professionalism and grittiness. That’s the possibility of the multi-verse, is that you can slam two completely different people together. I want to see the De Niro and Groden movie with the two of them. Obviously we did want to tease what the possibilities of the future could be if we could be so lucky as to open up this world even more. So that was sort of the point of that whole thing."
As for the unexpected casting of Chris Pine and Oscar Isaac as Peter Parker and Spider-Man 2099, they talked about keeping that a secret by not promoting their roles in the movie. They also had nothing but good things to say about them and what the duo ended up bringing to the table.
"Both of them are amazing actors and really funny and give their all," Miller said. "They don’t just phone it in. Chris was such a sport to not only do all the stuff for Peter Parker, the ideal version, but also just at the last minute, to be like, 'Hey, will you sing a Christmas album and give it your all?'"
"And then Oscar, I talked to him – he was in Jordan and I was in L.A. having the most awkward phone call you could have trying to explain to him what we thought this was going to be," Lord added. "God love him, he was very polite, and we had to write it down and send it to him." What do you guys think of these Into the Spider-Verse details?