How The ‘Across The Spider-Verse’ Team Took the Road Less Traveled and Struck Gold
As they sat down to write Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, screenwriters Phil Lord and Chris Miller had a decision to make.
Would the duo try and emulate the nearly-unprecedented success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, or would they chart a new course? How would they follow up a film that had been lauded for its originality?
Then, they wrote the first line of their script.
“Let’s do things differently this time.”
“Despite the pressure to follow the formula that worked before, we knew if we coasted with a rehash of the same themes, dynamics, ideas and visuals as its predecessor, it would be a disappointment. This would have to be an entirely different kind of film. Cinematic in ways we couldn’t imagine yet. The drama more complex and sophisticated, the characters more mature,” the screenwriters recalled.
How ‘Across The Spider-Verse’ Found It’s Heart
Starting out on the new film, the Spider-Verse team focused on one central question: “After you give that kid all the love you know how to give, what do you do when they want to leave home?”
Image: Sony
Inspired by their friend’s mother, who visited her “outrageously” messy apartment, the team wrote the speech that Rio Morales gave her son:
“For years I’ve been raising this little boy…Wherever you go out there, you gotta promise to take care of that little boy for me…and don’t let anybody in those big fancy places he’s going to go to tell him he doesn’t belong there.”
Photo: Sony
That speech would become the backbone of the film.
Subverting Expectations
Having chosen to take the road less traveled, the Spider-Verse team doubled down.
They decided to tell a story with quiet scenes and room to breathe. Characters talked about their feelings between action sequences. It was certainly not the easy route to take.
Photo: Pop Culture
The film’s first act focuses on Gwen Stacey and not the popular Miles Morales. It was structured as a tragedy. And, instead of finding his place in the world, Miles kept losing.
It was in these seemingly counter-intuitive decisions that Lord, Miller, and the rest of the team found their film. And audiences ate it up.
Photo: Marvel
“We were so worried the audience wouldn’t have any patience for all these quiet scenes of people talking about their feelings and demand we get back to the people swinging around chasing one another. But every time we showed them the movie, they surprised us. The small stuff is what thrilled them the most,” they recalled.
Doing it Their Own Way
Like Miles Morales, the Spider-Verse team chose to do their own thing. It was not only the right decision but, in the end, the only one they could make.
As they finalized the script, the team wrote the film’s final line.
Photo: LA Times
“I always wanted to be in a band. I just never found the right one. So I started my own.”
The rest, as they say, is Hollywood history.
