20 Things You Didn’t Know About Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse

By James Egan / May 30, 2023

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was the first big-screen animated feature about the web-slinger. On top of that, it was the first Marvel film centred around the Afro-Latino Spider-Man, Miles Morales. As such, true-believers hoped it would be great.

But Into the Spider-Verse wasn't just great. It was a masterpiece. Due to its eye-popping and trippy animation, impeccable comedy, astounding voice-acting, mouth-watering action, and surprisingly emotional core, Into the Spider-Verse obliterated all expectations. It was hailed as one of 2018's best features and among the greatest superhero movies of all time.

With the sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on the horizon, now feels like the perfect time to revisit its predecessor. As incredible as Into the Spider-Verse is, how it came to be is just as interesting.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was a massive undertaking from Sony Animation, and the film itself has loads of fascinating hidden secrets and details that are easy to miss. Its production is equally interesting, with the original story transforming over the course of the years-long journey it made to the silver screen. It might seem hard to improve on perfection, but knowing these facts makes Into the Spider-Verse even better.

20. Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Was Announced By Mistake

Due to the Amazing Spider-Man's lukewarm reception, Sony had to find some way to rejuvenate the franchise. Shortly after, Sony's co-chairman, Amy Pascal, hired Phil Lord and Christopher Miller to write a script for an animated comedy, centred around the wallcrawler.

Rather than formulating a conventional story about Peter Parker, Lord and Miller wished to adapt Dan Slott's Spider-Verse comic book event, with Miles Morales serving as the protagonist. After Sony execs agreed to these terms, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse got the green light. As the project started taking shape, Sony decided to announce Into the Spider-Verse at 2015's ComicCon.

There was just one snag. In November 2014, a hacker group publicly leaked a huge amount of data from Sony, including confidential emails and co-workers' personal details. This leak also revealed many upcoming projects from the company, including the animated Spider-Man feature.

By the time Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was officially announced five months later, everybody already knew about it.