“Let’s expose the beginnings of that trauma”: Across the Spider-Verse Had to Flesh Out Spider-Man 2099 as Early Scripts Made Him “Too big of an a**hole”
Sony’s most anticipated film, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, recently hit theatres. The interesting plotline and Oscar Isaac’s incredible performance have been well received by the audience. However, before being served to the viewers, the character of Spider-Man 2099 went through some significant changes so that it could make it to the big screens.
According to the makers of the film, Isaac’s character required the most development during production. The makers focused on revealing the backstory of the protagonist so that it can have more impact.
What led to the changes in Spider-Man 2099?
Throughout the existence of the Spider-Man franchise, it has raised the expectations of the audience to the extent that makers have to make sure to give the best output to the viewers. The recently released film, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse also went through many alterations before making a blast at the theatres.
The character of the film Miguel O’Hara, a.k.a. Spider-Man 2099, was brought to life by Oscar Isaac, who successfully created a buzz with his epic Marvel performance. However, according to the makers, Spider-Man 2099 somewhere lacked the potential of a superhero; hence, it required some polishing before being presented to the audience.
The producers of the film, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, shared about the adjustments made to the character of Miguel O’Hara during production. However, Isaac had a condition: his character should not be boring. During an interview with Rolling Stone, Miller explained that during the initial phase of production, Spider-Man 2099 required a lot of development. He said,
“There’s 1,000 smart people working on this movie for a long time and continually adjusting and shifting. And for a while he was too big of an asshole. [Laughs] And we were trying to be elegant about implying his backstory and his reasoning. Then we figured out that we had to let the audience in on his story the way we did on Gwen’s and on everybody else’s. That allowed him to be a more three-dimensional character.”
“One of the things we talked about with Oscar was like, we know people in our lives that are hardliners, right? And what makes them a hardliner is, they’re mostly traumatized. And the only way out is through a kind of orthodoxy. Because you can’t tolerate dissent, because dissent is to question whether your pain is legitimate or not. Oscar is from an exile community of Cubans, and that’s a lot of how people feel. And we were like, well, let’s expose the beginnings of that trauma, and so you’re sort of rooting for Miguel to find some other way. Because this was not working for him.”
The changes made to Isaac’s character indeed impacted the plotline greatly in such a manner that the audience could get the best of it. Indulging fans in the back story of the struggle of making up a character indeed played well, as knowing about the character only helped make him so much more of a compelling figure.
The revelation of the backstory of one of the most prominent characters of the film, Miguel O’Hara, indeed impacted the fans. Check out the tweets below:
Really hope they fully explore his origins because it’s really cool and I hope his arc in the next film is him realising how alike he is to Mike in how his origin and Miles being an anomaly are parallels
— 🤷♂️ (@Acomicfan52) June 11, 2023
I was utterly flabbergasted by his performance pic.twitter.com/H81pdBXLyo
— Churcheen (@churcheen) June 11, 2023
Yeah that helped a lot actually
— ExileForever (@ExileForever66) June 11, 2023
I can’t wait to see this movie Miguel is bad ass
— narutoanime16 (@Khord16) June 12, 2023
I can't wait to see his backstory in full.
— 𝕷𝖊𝖇𝖔𝖍𝖆𝖓𝖌 𝕹𝖉𝖑𝖔𝖛𝖚 (@whose_lebo) June 12, 2023
I need Miguel backstory in the next movie
— Z0nch (@Z0ncho) June 12, 2023
The superhero film features the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. The makers of the film have certainly pushed their boundaries to keep the viewers hooked on the plotline. The film tackles issues of mental health, as the protagonist of the film is seen dealing with anxiety as he feels overwhelmed by exams, school work, and relationships.
The film also highlights the relationship between a parent and a child. The makers’ attempt to reach millions of people has been a success, as the film is doing great at the box office, leaving its predecessor behind.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse marked its worldwide release on June 2, 2023, and is now playing in theatres.
Source: The Direct
