Spider-Ham was one of the breakout stars of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and the character is an ideal pick to lead his own spin-off film.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse told audiences that anyone could wear the mask and be Spider-Man. Audiences were introduced to a few different takes on the webhead and none was more surprising than that of Peter Porker aka Spider-Ham, voiced by John Mulaney. Created by Larry Hama, Tom DeFalco, and Mark Armstrong, Spider-Ham first appeared in the 1983 humorous one-shot Marvel Tails and went on to become a cult favorite in backup issues featuring other Marvel heroes imagined as animals.
Comic book fans had known of Spider-Ham, and the character was often treated as a fun punchline in video games like Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, but also with a fondness as seen in the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man. The character’s appearance in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse introduced Spider-Ham to a wider audience and made him more popular than he had ever been before thanks to a combination of great writing and Mulaney’s vocal performance.
Many people now want to see a Spider-Ham movie. Could this character, which in many ways is just one giant extended joke, carry a movie? Despite Spider-Ham having largely been an excuse for silly puns, it could actually work, and would probably even be one of the Sony Spider-Man spin-offs that makes the most sense.
Anthropomorphic Animals Tend to be Big Animated Hits
Making an animated Spider-Ham film just seems so obvious, given animation’s rich history with anthropomorphic animals. In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Ham is designed and animated to resemble a classic Looney Tunes-style character. While the Looney Tunes themselves have had a troubled box office track record, using that style of animation to inform an entire animated movie with a character audiences have already met might be a way to revive that style of animation. Sony already tested the waters with a Spider-Ham short film on the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Blu-ray, which was a good indicator of what a full Spider-Ham movie could be.
Walt Disney animation has had great success with animated films based on fully animal worlds, from 1971’s Robin Hood to the recent 2016’s Zootopia. The Spider-Ham storyline has a colorful supporting cast that would lend well to a feature film including the villain Pig King (his version of the Kingpin) and Raven the Hunter. Paired with the right voice actors, this could make an entirely new corner of the Spider-Man franchise to be explored for years in Spider-Ham sequels. One imagines a feature film focused solely on Spider-Ham and his colorful world full of animal friends and enemies would be a must-see film for any kid.
Spider-Verse Proved it Could Work
While a beloved movie that’s now considered one of the greatest superhero movies ever made, when Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was first announced, many were hesitant about how an animated Spider-Man movie could distinguish itself from the live-action franchise. Yet the movie won over audiences, showcasing exactly how unique animation was as a medium to tell this story and introducing a side of the Spider-Man world that live-action movies never could.
For as odd as Spider-Ham sounds as a concept, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse showed that the concept can work because audiences responded very positively to him. While it is tricky to take a fun supporting character and make them the lead of a movie (and cinema is filled with failed attempts, from Matter as the lead in Cars 2 or Russell Brand’s Aldis Snow getting upgraded to lead role in Get Him to the Greek), in the right hands a Spider-Ham movie could work. It might not be the moving dramas or exciting spectacles that other Spider-Man movies have been, but it could be a more silly, self-referential comedy that the genre hasn’t had since the first Deadpool.
Spider-Ham Wouldn’t be the Weirdest Spider-Man Spin-Off Sony Is Making
If Sony were to announce an animated Spider-Ham movie, it would not even be the strangest Spider-Man character for them to announce as the lead of their own film. While Venom was an obvious character given his popularity, the studio’s decision to make a movie based on Morbius was always a confusing one that resulted in a box office bomb. The studio is also developing a movie based on Spider-Man villain Kraven the Hunter, who is now positioned as an antihero. Additionally, Madame Web, a supporting Spider-Man character typically portrayed as a blind elderly woman, will now be reimagined with Dakota Johnson stepping into the lead role.
The studio has also cast rapper Bad Bunny to star as El Muerto, a Spider-Man villain that has only ever appeared in two Spider-Man comics. Recently, it was announced that Donald Glover will produce and star in a movie based on the Spider-Man villain Hypno-Hustler, a character who hypnotizes people with his guitar. Sony is scraping the bottom of the barrel of the Spider-Man brand to make films out of. At this rate, a Spider-Ham movie would seem like the safe bet for the studio and one that fans likely want to see more than El Muerto or Hypno-Hustler.
