Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
The now critically acclaimed, box office triumph that is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse introduces all manner of exciting variants of the friendly neighborhood web-slinger, with one of the most exciting being Hobart "Hobie" Brown aka Spider-Punk. Voiced by Academy Award winner and Get Out Daniel Kaluuya, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse co-director Joaquim Dos Santos has explained to Collider the thinking behind casting the British actor and allowing him to bring his actual accent to the big screen for a change.
“Daniel Kaluuya is, I think, one of our great actors of our generation. I was surprised, honestly. You know, when I think of Daniel Kaluuya I think of him speaking in an American accent. We watched these interviews with him and it was just him doing this on a talk show, and we set that against the visuals of Spider-Punk as he was being developed, and just seeing a stagnant image of Spider-Punk set to his voice, it jumped off the page. So, yeah, I could hear the guy talk all day long. I'm gonna understand probably, like, two out of every five words that he says, but I'll listen to it all day long.”
A version of Spider-Man from Earth-138, Spider-Punk gains his powers after being bitten by an irradiated spider and fights the good fight against an oppressive, authoritarian government. Inspired by the punk-rock movement and dedicated to anti-establishment anarchy, Spider-Punk plays a small but integral role in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. His radical way of thinking gradually bleeds into Miles Morales, leading to him to rebel against the Spider-Society, attempt to save his loved ones, and go against canon.
Spider-Punk Has Become a Fast & Firm Fan-Favorite
Despite being a much lesser-known version of Spider-Man, Spider-Punk has quickly become a fan-favorite. And a lot of that is down to Daniel Kaluuya and his performance. Certainly, the ingenuity in Spider-Punk's design has helped him standout, with his color-scheme constantly changing while different elements of his clothing move at different frame rates to create the illusion that he has been put together using different punk-rock flyers, but it is Kaluuya’s effortless magnetism that makes his rebellious nature so contagious.
Kaluuya stars alongside a large ensemble cast in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse that includes Shameik Moore as Miles Morales aka Spider-Man, Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy aka Spider-Woman, Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker aka Spider-Man, Oscar Isaac as Miguel O'Hara aka Spider-Man 2099, Issa Rae as Jessica Drew aka Spider-Woman, Karan Soni as Pavitr Prabhakar aka Spider-Man India, Andy Samberg as Ben Reilly aka Scarlet Spider, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World star Jason Schwartzman as Jonathan Ohnn aka The Spot.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse throws Miles Morales back into the madness of the multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. However, when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders.
Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson from a screenplay by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and David Callaham, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is out now in theaters. The third and final outing, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, is scheduled to be released on March 29, 2024.