Spider-Man: Almost Through the Spider-Verse has had “huge” live-action sequences

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, despite being the follow-up to one of the most beloved animated films in recent memory, almost featured “huge live-action sequences.”

While the movie was a look at the MCU with clips from previous Spider-Man movies, it looks like fans got a look at some of the other live-action Spideys.

during an interview with diverseAcross the Spider-Verse, directors Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson said that they originally planned to skip those live-action segments.

“We had bigger ambitions,” Thompson said.

Powers added, “There were times when we had huge live action scenes in the movie, and it turned out to be a bad joke.” We didn’t even like it anymore. And we just said, ‘Okay, enough, let’s make sure it’s an accurate thing that gets the most bang for your buck, and speaks the story.'”

Neither Thompson nor Powers disclosed what those sequences were, but it appears they were canned fairly early in the process, and only existed as storyboards and animations with cut versions of characters dubbed by crew members.

“She just seemed like a South Park character,” Powers said.

“We have to do it as a character,” Thompson added.

Across the Spider-Verse has already made quite an impression on audiences all over the world, earning $208.6 million during its global debut. In fact, its domestic opening was nearly three times that of the original Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Now revealed to be part of a three-part trilogy, Across the Spider-Verse raises some interesting questions about what’s to come.

IGN’s review of Across the Spider-Verse gave it an 8/10 and said: “By stepping up the vibrant visuals and relentlessly chaotic action, Across the Spider-Verse is a worthy follow-up to the all-time classic.”

Want to read more about Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse? Check out our rankings of all the Spider-Man movies as well as our breakdown of all the different Spider-Men we’ve spotted in film.

Ryan Liston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow it Twitter.