‘Spider-Punk’: Daniel Kaluuya Set to Write, Direct ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ Spin-Off!!

After becoming a fan-favorite variant in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, one Spider is getting ready for his solo. Per Deadline, Sony Pictures Animation is developing a new animated film centered on the hard-rocking Spider-Punk, aka Hobie Brown. Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya, who voiced the character in Miles Morales’s multiverse adventure, will be picking up the pen this time to co-write the story with Ajon Singh. It’s expected that he’ll also jump back into the role of Hobie, though plot details and other specifics about the project have yet to be shared.

It’s unclear at this time whether the Spider-Punk movie will connect to Christopher Miller and Phil Lord‘s Spider-Verse in some way, or if it’s meant as a standalone story pulled from the comics. Hobie was created by Dan Slott and artist Olivier Coipel as an anti-establishment, punk-rock Spider-Man hailing from a world dominated by corporations and ruled under a fascist dictatorship. His first appearance on the page came in 2015’s The Amazing Spider-Man #10 as part of the Spider-Verse crossover event, though his reality has since been fleshed out in solo comics. In the grittier Earth-138, Spider-Punk quite literally pushes to change the world with music, channeling the voltage of punk rock alongside his band of freedom fighters against the cops employed by Oscorp, run by the oppressive Norman “Ozzy” Osborn. A solo film has the chance to be one of the darkest depictions of Spidey on the big screen, albeit with plenty of musical flair.

Kaluuya was a big part of making Across the Spider-Verse‘s Hobie effortlessly cool as he helped Miles (Shameik Moore) and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) against The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) and became a source of inspiration for the former as he forged his own path as a hero. It was his addition to the film and his abilities that inspired the decision to make Hobie so integral to Miles’s story. Although he’s best known for his acting chops on films like Get Out, Nope, and Judas and the Black Messiah, he’s starting to branch out to other creative ventures, most recently making his directorial debut with The Kitchen, which he also penned. Spider-Punk will still be a big step for him as a writer, though Singh will help, having recently worked on the script for the upcoming Robert Pattinson-led crime drama Primetime for A24.

When Will Hobie Brown Return in ‘Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse’?

Before he gets to rock out in his own world, Kaluuya‘s Spider-Punk will be back in the hotly anticipated Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. With Miles trapped in an alternate universe and captured by another version of himself that has donned the mask of the Prowler, Hobie will be one of several Spiders joining Gwen to rescue him and save the multiverse. The final moments of Across the Spider-Verse see Spider-Man India (Karan Soni), Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson), Mayday Parker, Spider-Byte (Amandla Stenberg), and the original trio of Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn), and Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage) all swinging in for the adventure. It’ll still be a while before the film caps off the trilogy with even more new Spiders, though. Numerous delays have pushed it back to June 25, 2027, despite initial plans to have it arrive as soon as 2024.