Daniel Kaluuya to play Spider-Punk in Across The Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse had a lot of different Spider-Mans in it, but Marvel nerds—especially those who read the the Spider-Verse event that loosely inspired the movie—know that there are countless other Spider-Mans who didn’t make it into the movie. Oh sure, Spider-Gwen and Peni Parker and Spider-Man Noir are cool, but what about Spiders-Man, the superhero who is actually a big pile of spiders with a hive mind that eats human flesh? Well, Spiders-Man is one of the worst things ever put in a comic book, so maybe it’s good that they haven’t made the cut for Into The Spider-Verse’s sequel.

But one significantly more palatable Spider-Man will be in the new movie, with The Hollywood Reporter saying that Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse will feature Hobart “Hobie Brown, a.k.a. Spider-Punk, a guy who is a lot like the regular Spider-Man you know except his costume involves a denim vest, a leather belt with spikes on it, Chuck Taylors, and a mohawk. Also: He listens to angry music about upending societal norms! Spider-Punk will be played by Daniel Kaluuya (from Nope and Judas And The Black Messiah), joining Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld from the first movie (plus Oscar Isaac’s Spider-Man 2099 from the first movie’s post-credits scene).

Other newcomers include Issa Rae, playing Jessica Drew (a.k.a. Spider-Woman), and Jason Schwartzman, who is playing a bad guy known as The Spot. We heard earlier this year that the movie would have “hundreds” of characters, so the directing team of Justin K. Thompson, Joaquim Dos Santos and Kemp Powers better get cracking. Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse will open in theaters on June 2, 2023, and another sequel, Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse, is set to debut in 2024.