Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse was an Academy Award-winning animated film that portrayed the journey of Miles Morales as he discovered more Spider-People in other universes. It looks like we are in for more treats on the 2nd of June, 2023 with the release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and some great new talent has been added to the roster for the sequel. Across the Spider-Verse will be introducing Daniel Kaluuya as Spider-Punk.
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The highly anticipated sequel to Sony’s 2018 release is finally on its way, and follows the story of Miles Morales once again, joined by Gwen Stacy and a whole gang of Spider-People to face off with a new, more powerful villain. The film will be directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K. Thompson, and Kemp Powers, and produced by Amy Pascal, Avi Arad, Chris Miller, Christina Steinberg, and Phil Lord.
We have some returning members of the voice cast with Brian Tyree Henry, Greta Lee, Luna Lauren Velez and Oscar Isaac, as well as some fresh blood with Issa Rae, Jason Schwartzman, Joma Taccone, Rachel Dratch, and Shae Whigham joining the team. Another member has been confirmed to be joining the team, and that is Daniel Kaluuya, set to voice the punk rock web-slinger, Spider-Punk.
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Spider-Punk
Real name Hobart “Hobie” Brown, Spider-Punk first appeared in Marvel Comics back in 2015 when he led the citizens of New York against an army of Norman Osborn’s V.E.N.O.M. troops, slinging webs and his guitar, his punk rock music is the perfect weapon against the sound-sensitive symbiotic race.
Much like Peter Parker, he was also bitten by a radioactive spider that gave him the same powers as Peter Parker, but the homeless teen who became a hero to the citizens of his universe is set apart because of his deep affinity with punk rock. With his music and his arsenal of Spidey superpowers, it will be a delight to see how metal enters the Marvel Animated Universe.
The announcement of Daniel Kaluuya as Spider-Punk has been met with a ton of excitement, as well as some vaguely controversial questions. “Is Hobart also going to be black now?” is one of the main ones. This is of course a weird question because from what I’ve found in the art on the character, Spider-Punk has always been a spunky, African American teen. Maybe people just assumed he wasn’t under the mask? I can’t say for sure, but I believe Daniel Kaluuya is going to bring the perfect amount of grungy vocals to the character with his deep and charismatic tone. With animation, voice actors’ race or nationality doesn’t have to determine the character that they play in any case, so I don’t know why that was even a question from a viewer.
After the wild success of the first film, this sequel has some pretty big shoes to fill, but with the elite army of voice actors they have hired, I think that it has all the potential to succeed and exceed its predecessor.
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