The following contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, now playing in theaters.
As well as bringing Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy and Peter B. Parker back to the big screen, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse features a wealth of cameos from other Spider-Man adaptations. Notably, these include a range of appearances from live-action characters, such as Donald Glover's Prowler from the MCU, Mrs. Chen from the Venom movies, and recycled footage of Andrew Garfield's and Tobey Maguire's Peter Parkers. While it's exciting to see the Spider-Verse films crossing over with these other series, these live-action cameos could be bad news for bigger crossovers in the future.
Ever since Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse came out, fans have wanted to see the animated multiverse-focused franchise bring the live-action Spider-Men into its lineup of heroes. Seeing Tom Holland's, Andrew Garfield's and Tobey Maguire's Spider-Men join forces with Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen and Peter B. Parker's older Spidey would feel like a perfect utilization of the multiverse's possibilities, taking Spider-Man: No Way Home's Spidey crossover to the next level. But Across the Spider-Verse's approach to live-action cameos might make this less likely to transpire.
How Across the Spider-Verse Incorporates Live-Action Spider-Men
A live-action character first appears in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse when the Spot starts jumping between realities and ends up in the universe of the Venom movies. Later, Donald Glover's Aaron Davis (who was last seen in Spider-Man: Homecoming) appears in Spider HQ. Then, when Miguel O'Hara explains the existence of canon events to Miles, he plays a series of holograms that include scenes from Andrew Garfield's and Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man films. In all of these instances, the live-action characters are presented in live-action, mixed in with the film's animated elements.
The use of live-action performances within Across the Spider-Verse's predominantly animated environment is in keeping with the film's use of varying art and animation styles to express the differences between the countless realities of the multiverse. Some Spider-Men are hand-drawn, others are created via CGI, others are a mix of the two techniques and at least one is a stop-motion Lego figure. However, even though throwing live-action elements into the mix aligns with Across the Spider-Verse's design ethos, there can be no denying the live-action characters feel more out of place than any of the animated ones.
Can Live-Action Spider-Men Ever Belong in an Animated Spider-Verse?
Had Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse taken a less radical approach to mixing varied aesthetics and instead depicted live-action characters through animation, it would have been easier to envision a future crossover featuring Miles Morales fighting alongside the Spider-Men played by Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland. Making a crossover of this nature work with Space Jam-style mix of live-action characters and animation is another matter, however. It's hard to imagine the Spider-Men who have been established in more grounded, live-action universes convincingly interacting with stylized animated characters.
Emotional beats are unlikely to land if Tom Holland's Peter Parker is being superimposed into a scene opposite a two-dimensional Miles Morales. The live-action cameos that occur in Across the Spider-Verse -- those that involve characters actually interacting and sharing a space, as opposed to the holograms of Garfield and Maguire -- are played for laughs. The film appears to understand the limitations of scenes involving real actors with cartoon characters. However, now it has been established that live-action characters will not be converted to animation in the Spider-Verse franchise, it seems unlikely the series will be able to deliver a convincing No Way Home-scale crossover involving Miles and his cinematic predecessors.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now playing in theaters.