Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to Receive 'Alt-Universe Cut'

CBR

By Noah Dominguez

Published Feb 26, 2019

Into the Spider-Verse's home release will feature an "alternate universe" cut with material that almost made into the Academy-Award-winning movie.

With Sony Pictures Animation's Oscar-winning film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse set to land on home media soon, directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman have revealed that an extended version of the movie, dubbed the "Alt-Universe Cut" is set to be included.

"[Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse] had an unusual amount of material at every stage of production," Rothman told CinemaBlend. "So, an insane amount of storyboard material, like insane, like break your high-end edit systems insane. An insane amount of layout, an insane amount of finished animation that didn't make it into the movie... an unusual amount. So the Alt-Universe cut contains a bunch of that stuff that we chose not to put in the movie, but that in an alternate universe easily could have ended up in the movie. So, uh, that's kind of the premise behind it."

Rothman and Persichetti admit that the Alt-Universe Cut isn't quite as good quality-wise as the theatrical version of the film. However, it is also full of content that fans will likely be very excited to see, such as the new Spider-Ham short added to the beginning of the film, a deleted scene featuring Miles Morales and Peter Parker having a heart-to-heart talk on a billboard, as well as a very different dynamic between Miles and his roommate Ganke Lee, which is closer to the one shared by the two in the comics.

"The alt version is more beholden to the idea that Miles and Ganke were buddies and roommates, and there's a lot more roommate stuff happening," said Persichetti. "And what we ended up running into was just two things. It was like, 'Oh, wow. [Spider-Man:] Homecoming, Ned - very similar to Ganke.' Really. And then, 'Well, maybe it's actually better if Miles experiences these things without a really well-educated Sherpa holding his hand through all the powers coming on and everything, and it ended up helping us out for that place where Peter comes into the movie."

The directors also explained that the point of the Alt-Universe Cut was not only to include cut content and maybe get a few extra laughs, but also to help viewers understand why certain things had to be cut and how intricate a process bringing a movie like Into the Spider-Verse together really is.

"One of the cool things about this movie, and especially since its been released, is that we do actually like to share a lot about the process of making it, and the different iterations we went through because so many people worked for so long on this movie, and we did really try a lot of different things," Rothman explained. "So that version of the movie is like a great window into how the movie evolved, and different things that we were working on. And for any filmmakers out there, anyone interested in our movie or movies generally it will be interesting. I know I love that stuff when I see it."

Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse stars Shameik Moore, Brian Tyree Henry, Jake Johnson, Mahershala Ali, Hailee Steinfeld, Liev Schreiber, Luna Lauren Velez, Lily Tomlin, Nicolas Cage, John Mulaney and Kimiko Glenn. The film will be coming to home release on Blu-Ray, UltraHD, 4K and DVD on March 19 and on digital HD February 26.