Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse gives us a nearly infinite number of versions of the web-slinger, but are any of them one we've met before? We've seen many different versions of Spider-Man on the big screen alone, so are any of these animated Spider-Men (Spider-Mans?) supposed to be one of the previous live-action versions? Producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were recently asked if Sam Raimi's version of Spider-Man can be found in the film. According to them, the Peter Parker that we meet in Into the Spider-Verse isn't any one previous Spider-Man, but is a new character influenced by all that came before him. According to Chris Miller...
I think the idea is that this Peter Parker is an amalgam of all the Peter Parkers that you have seen in popular culture. So there's elements of the Homecoming Tom Holland Spider-Man, of an Andrew Garfield Spider-Man, of the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man, of Spider-Man from various comics and TV shows. And sort of in this universe the Spider-Man that comes to Miles' world is one that looks similar to but is not exactly the same as the ones that you know. And so, that's why all of those plots are similar, but there's a twist to them.
While Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse brings us a multitude of Spider-Man versions, from Spider-Gwen to Noir Spider-Man to Spider-Ham, there is actually only one proper Peter Parker credited to the film, voiced by Jake Johnson. Rather than make him an animated version of Tom Holland or Tobey Maguire, this Spider-man is designed to remind you of every version of Spider-Man you've known before, but isn't actually designed to be any one of them.
Of course, there's a perfectly good reason that one might make a connection between the Sam Raimi directed Spider-Man, and the version of the character that we see in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, as the film makes a direct reference to that movie, though, as Chris Miller implies to Fandango, the reference is slightly twisted. According to Phil Lord...
Yeah, the Spider-Man in Miles' universe that he meets early in the movie was meant to be as competent a Spider-Man as possible, and is meant to be living in an alternate universe that we would all consider the mainstream comics universe. So you'll see that like he and M.J. kiss in the rain upside down, but she's upside down, and he's right side up. Just trying to find little ways to say, 'This is a parallel dimension.'
The entire premise of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is that there are an infinite number of parallel dimensions in which different versions of Spider-Man exist. As such, while one could certainly suppose that Sam Raimi's Spider-Man exists in one of them, there's no reason that we need to meet any version of the character we knew before, as there are an infinite number of versions we've never met who we can be introduced to here.
And of course, by using new characters, the movie can set up sequels that go off in any number of directions, something that is reportedly already being planned. Unsurprising considering that the initial reaction to the first film is absolutely off the charts.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse arrives in theaters December 14.
