Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse: Why ‘Australian Spider-Man’ didn’t make the cut

In a new interview, co-director Rodney Rothman has revealed a key role he intended an Australian Spider-Man to play in the story – which sees multiple Spider-Men from multiple dimensions colliding in one. But it seems that despite the huge number of Marvel Spideys that show up on screen over the course of the animated masterpiece, the addition of one more proved to be one too many – at least at a late stage of the process.

“We created an Australian Spider-Man,” Rothman told CinemaBlend.

“He showed up with the other Spiders, and he said he was 24 hours ahead, and then he glitched to death.

“So everyone was going to be like, ‘Oh, it’s going to be 24 hours.’ That was the official ticking clock.”

But there wasn’t enough time to implement the idea in the end product.

“When I handed that draft of the script in I was nearly fired, mainly just because it was at a time in production when the idea of adding another Spider-Man,” he joked.

“It demonstrated a profound lack of understanding of film production!”

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse does feature Miles Morales, Peter Parker x2, Peni Parker, Spider-Ham, Spider-Gwen and Spider-Noir.

The movie took $35 million in its first weekend at the box office, enough to take the No1 spot. It also achieved a stellar A+ grade on CinemaScore.

On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an incredible 97% score from critics, with the consensus reading: “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse matches bold storytelling with striking animation for a purely enjoyable adventure with heart, humor, and plenty of superhero action.”

Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Lily Tomlin, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, Kimiko Glen and Nicholas Cage populate the voice cast.

It’s a big month for Steinfeld: she’s also promoting Bumblebee, the new Transformers movie, in which she plays the human lead.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is out now.