Daniel Kaluuya Was Almost Cut from Across the Spider-Verse

Daniel Kaluuya came to the rescue for Spider-Punk in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

The character, also known as Hobart “Hobie” Brown, was on the verge of being omitted from the movie as Phil Lord and Chris Miller thought there were too many characters in the film. But after meeting Kaluuya, they felt they had to cast him “at any cost.”

While speaking to Entertainment Weekly Miller said, “Some people were like, ‘Is there a way to simplify this? There’s so many characters. Do we really need Spider-Punk?’”

Lord explained further, “He was in and out of the picture for a little while because we weren’t sure which elements we were going to stick in this part and which were going to migrate to the next movie.”

“When we met Daniel Kaluuya, we realized that he had to be Hobie Brown, no matter the cost. And Hobie had to be in the movie because that personality needed to be part of the story,” Lord continued. Miller added, “Once we got to know Daniel, we rewrote the part so it became more necessary.”

Last month, Variety disclosed that Sony has pulled the highly anticipated Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse off its release schedule. The third movie was initially intended to be released in March 2024. While, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is streaming on Netflix.