Features, Superhero

‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’: Digital Version Has New Effects, Changed Dialogue, and More!!

The multiverse has officially come home with the digital release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse earlier this week, and already, internet sleuths are tracking down what has changed since the film was in theaters. It was confirmed back in June that multiple versions of the animated film existed in the wild that a few viewers picked up on due to small changes in dialogue, effects, and more. With a home release now available, The Hollywood Handle editor Christopher Gallardo compiled a thread on Twitter of all the confirmed differences between the digital and theatrical cuts of the film.

Amid the many minor changes in Across the Spider-Verse are added visuals and dialogue in certain scenes that do give them a bit more life. One example, which audiences previously pointed out in theaters, was the scene near the beginning where Miguel O’Hara’s (Oscar Isaac) digital assistant LYLA (Greta Lee) poses while teasing him about needing backup which has since been changed to include a shot of her taking a selfie with him. One of the other bigger changes comes with Hobie Brown (Daniel Kaluuya), aka Spider-Punk, who now has lyrics in his intro song. A few visuals, like Spider-sense lines around Miles (Shameik Moore), new text dialog for Typeface (Andy Leviton), a new color palette in a scene between Gwen (Hailey Steinfeld) and her dad, and new dreads plus better shading for Earth-42 Prowler Miles, are also noticeably different between cuts. Many of the alterations are also just straight swaps of dialogue with notable examples including Ben Reilly’s (Andy Samberg) “sleeper hold” line being changed to instead highlight his “well-defined musculature” or The Spot’s (Jason Schwartzman​​​​​​) line “Foot in your face,” being changed to “Whoopsie” when he kicks Gwen.

It’s not all about additions either. A few aspects present in the theatrical cut were outright removed like the dialog boxes from when Miles realizes he’s in Earth-42 or when Gwen says she won’t see him again. In Miles and Miguel’s climactic battle where the leader of the Spider Society tries to stop the web-slinging hero, Miles’s final line of “Sorry man, I’m going home” before blasting away Miguel was also taken out of the digital version which does somewhat make sense given its awkward placement in the scene. That’s not an isolated incident though, as Gwen loses some dialogue from the theatrical cut when searching for Miles among the rubble in Mumbattan and when she swings out from her apartment window after turning off the police radio.

Across the Spider-Verse‘s Two Cuts Are a Joy to Comb Through

These small differences in dialogue and visuals add a little extra fun to seeing both cuts of the film and are all the more reason to revisit the box office mega-hit at home especially if you saw the original cut. There’s nothing here that fundamentally changes Across the Spider-Verse‘s heartfelt story of Miles Morales as he travels through the multiverse and redefines what it means to be a hero, but it adds a little flavor to an already-excellent film by creating two variants that feel like they’re from different worlds.

Miles’s journey still has one part left to tell, but it looks like it’ll be a while. Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, the third and final act of the trilogy of films by Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, will pick up in the immediate aftermath of Across the Spider-Verse as Miles tries to escape his alternate universe self in order to make it back to his world and save his father while Gwen and her team of Spiders try desperately to find him. Unfortunately, Sony recently removed the film from its calendar amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, leaving a strong possibility that the film won’t arrive until 2025. When it does arrive, however, it’ll bring even more new Spiders along with the original crew of Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn), Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), and Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage).

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is available on digital now. Check out the thread and all the neat differences that define the two cuts below.

via Collider

Leave a Reply