A SPIDER FOR EVERY ‘VERSE’: MEET THE SPIDER-PEOPLE IN “ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE” (PART 2)

ARE you ready to watch Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse? Get to know the Spider-People you’ll meet in the sequel.

The highly anticipated second film in the Spider-Verse trilogy opens across Philippine cinemas May 31.

Watch the film’s final trailer: https://youtu.be/yEU_jRepaQg

Pavitr Prabhakar is Spider-Man India

“Pavitr’s powers came through magic, so he is quite different from a lot of other Spider-People who were bitten by radioactive spiders,” explains Powers. “Like many other Spider-People, he has had to suffer a loss, and in his case, it was his uncle. Yet he’s probably one of the most optimistic characters in the movie.” Shares Karan Soni, who voices Pavitr, whose world Mumbattan is a wild futuristic mishmash of Manhattan and Mumbai on Earth-50101: “When it was announced that I was playing him, I cannot tell you how many messages I got from people. Firstly, they were just excited, and then there were a few more serious messages, saying mainly, ‘don’t mess this up.’ I don’t think we did!”

Hobie Brown is Spider-Punk

“You can describe him as a cross between Iggy Pop, Bad Brains, and Spider-Man,” says Powers of Hobie Brown, who’s from a world that’s a bizarro mixture of ’70s- and ’80s-era London and modern-day New York. “He wields a rock guitar that he uses to play music – and also utilizes it as a sonic weapon. He’s that cool, slightly older boy who is pretty easy for most girls to have a crush on.” Actor Daniel Kaluuya, who voices Spider-Punk, confesses, “I was obsessed with Spider-Man growing up… And here I am, voicing a character who is from where I am from. I could not have dreamed this up!”

Ben Reilly is Scarlet Spider

The visuals for Ben Reilly were inspired by comic books from the 1990s. As writer-producer Lord puts it, “His muscles have muscles, and if you dissected him, you’d find out he’s not a human being because he doesn’t follow any normal human anatomy. He’s double- and triple-jointed and reminds you of the guy who spends a lot of time at the gym and is psyched all the time!”

Spider-Cat is Spider-Cat

The Spot is…

Writer-producer Miller points out that Dr. Jonathan Ohnn, aka The Spot, was in the Super-Collider Miles and the gang blew up in the first movie, and that’s when he got covered in dark matter and turned into this character who has many holes and portals inside him. “At first, he just seems like kind of a clumsy, low-level, goofy villain-of-the-week that has sort of Looney Tunes-style holes that go everywhere. But then he starts to realize that he can use those holes to go between dimensions, and he gets more and more powerful and becomes a real foe for Miles.”

“Spider-Man™: Across the Spider-Verse is directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, the screenplay is by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller and David Callaham, based on the MARVEL Comic Books.

Produced by Avi Arad, Amy Pascal, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Christina Steinberg.

The film’s cast is led by Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld, Jake Johnson, Issa Rae, Daniel Kaluuya, Jason Schwartzman, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez, Greta Lee, Rachel Dratch, Jorma Taccone, Shea Whigham and Oscar Isaac.

Opening in Philippine cinemas May 31, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Connect with the hashtag #SpiderVerse

(ROHN ROMULO)