Less an Easter egg than an overriding philosophy that allows Easter eggs to flourish, this is where we acknowledge one of the things that makes Across The Spider-Verse so overwhelming and special: It’s all canon. Every Spider-Man cartoon, every movie, every comic: It all exists within reach of the Spider-Verse. Want to have a major plot point be illustrated by a live-action hologram of Andrew Garfield cradling a dying Denis Leary? It’s in there. Tobey Maguire mourning Cliff Robertson? It’s in there. J.K. Simmons blowing hard as J. Jonah Jameson? In there. The pointing finger gag? In there. The version of Peter from the short-lived but beloved animated TV series Spectacular Spider-Man? He’s in there—complete with a new voice line from original star Josh Keaton.
As Hollywood has become more and more fixated on the concept of the multiverse in recent years, it’s done so in depressingly limited ways—with executives clearly viewing these infinite realities as little more than a catch-all way to juice life out of existing franchises, and maybe deal with the occasional contract dispute. But Across The Spider-Verse embraces its possibilities so fully that it begins to feel genuinely limitless: If there’s a version of Peter, or Miles, or Gwen out there that anyone might want to see it, the film will not only grab them from the ether, but celebrate them. For all that the movie concerns itself with the idea of a rigid Spider-Man canon that defines these character’s stories, it betrays its real heart with these choices: The unbounded willingness to express the idea of “Spider-Man” in any way, every way, that connects with the character’s fans.
