Across the Spider-Verse Panel: Cut content and what’s in store for the future

SCAD Film Fest Event covered by: Ben Mallock

Illustration Credit: Creative Commons, Axellmejiart on DeviantArt

With the conclusion of SCAD’s 26th annual film festival, RenderQ was excited to cover one panel featuring some very special guests . While co-producer Christian Miller was supposed to join but was sick with COVID, Across the Spider-Verse co-producer, Phil Lord, and directors Kemp Powers, Justin K Thompson, and Joaquim Dos Santos joined the film fest for a screening of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”. This was followed by an informative Q&A session, which was moderated by Variety senior awards editor, Clayton Davis. But what were the guests’ answers? If readers were not able to attend this panel, in this article, we hope to share some insight about the making of Across the Spider-Verse that was discussed at the Film Festival. 

Davis kicked off the Q&A session with a big, yet simple question for the directors: “What did you find most difficult in taking on this ambitious project?” It was clear that Clayton wanted to open this conversation with the responsibilities of the directors during the making of this film, and Joaquim was happy to answer. “There was a lot of tough stuff to do. You know, I come from TV. In TV we sort of- you want to get people early. You want the first episode- to really sink their (the audience) teeth in, and be excited. Episode two? Maybe kind of… eh? But they’re on for the entirety of the ride. With film, it’s literally down to the pixel. Like, you don’t have an opportunity to lose the audience, even for a second.”  Santos made it clear that there’s higher expectations when making movies, due to the shorter amount of time films have to entertain a viewer.

Soon after, Clayton pivoted to a question just for Lord, regarding the decision for making a trilogy. “At what point when you’re making this do you say to yourself: ’This is not a sequel. We gotta go big with more movies in this world?’ Or did you know that early on?” Phil took a moment to ponder this answer. “I think a year, or two years ago, we realized we were writing two movies, and we had to admit it to ourselves. Because this movie felt like it stood on its own, and that the structure of it, even though it is a bit unusual, is something really exciting to write and create.” It didn’t take long for Lord to delve deeper into this question, even going into the pivotal story beats that prolonged the plot of the movie. “Think about this movie. Miles loses the entire movie. People betray him, and he gets lost, and, inside he’s learning, and winning.” This was a thought that many audience members came to the realization of, understanding this importance only then.

After delving into the details of this un-planned trilogy, Davis cut to the chase asking one last question which answered what everybody wanted to know. “What’s in the next one?” Referring to the next movie, Spider-Man Beyond the Spider-Verse. The audience laughed after Clayton continued. “Did you bring it with you?” Chris was saddened to say “No”, but he finally gathered a proper response to the question. “We’re working hard on it. The thing about this group of filmmakers is what we talk about; relationships, and character arcs, and ‘what is the last step of Miles?’ What does he do with the feelings at the end of this movie? Which is like, ‘you’re enraged.’ You’ve (referring to Miles) been wronged, and how do you turn that feeling, [and I think we can all relate to that feeling], into something affirmative, useful, for viewers? That takes a while to learn.” A fair response for such a big question.

After the producer shared these thoughts on the future of the trilogy, the panel concluded, and he was thanked for his time by SCAD students rushing to the stage, in hopes of autographs and extra questions. A few hours later at 5:00 pm, the directors of the film attended the “Pixels Animated Directors Roundtable”, as Phil got ready to walk SCAD‘s special guest red carpet for more photographs and interviews. As the directors joined the carpet later on, I was able to call Joaquim over to personally answer an important final question about the film.

“There was a bunch of content cut from the final movie of ‘Across the Spider-Verse: audio lines after the theatrical release, characters, etc. Can you talk about the artistic restraints or any other things and changes that came across that caused these changes?” 

When Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse was released for digital platforms, alterations to the film were noticed. Certain lines of dialogue were removed from this version of the film that were included in the original theatrical release. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tZpY7ZfbQFI (Courtesy of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Spiderman/comments/14xfg8e/pages_excuse_the_photo_quality_from_atsv_art_book/  (Courtesy of Across the Spider-Verse art book)

But regarding the film’s development as a whole, one planned member of Miguel’s team, Delilah,  was a character cut in development of the film, only introduced recently in Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 videogame as a collaborative Easter egg for the film. (When asked about it, even Lord himself didn’t know why the game included her.) Changes and cuts like this have been found all over (regarding the film) and questioned by many. What did a senior director of the film have to say to this? 

“I don’t think it was restraints, I think it was all in an effort to make the film a better film.”

It was then that I asked for more elaboration. “But the audio cuts for the film, you’d say they enhance the story?”

Joaquin responded. “I think, we’re always striving to make a film better, you know? So every tweak- and every change made is, an effort to make a better experience.”

Mike Andrews, an editor for the film, was actually in the audience for the showing of the movie, and was willing to talk more about this question. Andrew claimed that the audio changes were only made after the movie became available in all other countries, but the question remains, why is that? It’s unfortunate that these changes to the film couldn’t be talked about more, but it seems that they’re here to stay, regardless of the reasoning. 

No matter the development process, Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse is an animated spectacle of a film, and we’re thankful for the directors and producer of the movie coming to SCAD to talk about it more. SCAD owes a big thank you to Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K Thompson, Kemp Powers, and Phil Lord.