Across the Spider-Verse Cameo Happened

While Andrew Garfield ended up inside the web-slinging suit instead of Glover, the idea of a Black Spider-Man in general — and Glover in the role in particular — stayed on the minds of the pop culture powers that be. Glover wore Spider-Man pajamas in an episode of “Community,” popped up as the Prowler in Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures’ “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” and ultimately inspired the creation of the Miles Morales character in the comics. He also voiced Miles in “Ultimate Spider-Man,” but when “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse” came out, the actor was nowhere to be found. Luckily, “Across the Spider-Verse” remedied that, as Glover appears as a live-action Prowler captured in a containment chamber in the new movie.

According to “Across the Spider-Verse” directors Kemp Powers and Joaquim Dos Santos, the fan-favorite cameo didn’t actually come together until the very last minute. In an interview with Variety, the filmmakers explained that the sequence didn’t even appear in earlier test screenings of the film. “It was shot at a studio in New York. Chris Miller flew to be there in person, and Phil Lord and I were on the video feed giving direction,” Powers told the outlet. He added, “We got it in at the 11th hour. As a matter of fact, even in audience preview screenings, it was a little cardboard cutout of Donald Glover.”