One of the reasons Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is so unique is how it includes characters who probably wouldn't have ever appeared in live action. At the top of this list is Spider-Ham, the Looney Tunes-esque hero voiced by John Mulaney. Like the other Spider-heroes who appeared alongside Miles Morales in Into the Spider-Verse, there's potential for Spider-Ham to lead his own standalone movie, and Mulaney already has a story pitch. He explained:
[Spider-Ham] is a fun guy who is capable of great rage. To go see him back at the Daily Beagle --- I could see a Watergate-like story at the Beagle where he's both a reporter and Spider-Ham by night. [I] never thought that the Clark Kents and the Peter Parkers leaned enough into the day job. This would be more like The Post or All The President's Men or Spotlight, but we'd make it family friendly. Lots of bacon jokes, or, 'that's hamfisted.'
Spider-Ham may be the wackiest of the Spider-heroes in the multiverse, but as John Mulaney sees it, there's room for the pig's movie to have substance as well. Like Peter Parker, Spider-Ham is a photographer for a newspaper, so while his superhero adventures are full of crazy antics, that could be balanced by a journalistic investigation, as Mulaney mused to Variety.
I'm curious to see if Sony would be on board with this kind of story. After all, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse had to appeal to both young and older moviegoers alike, and I'm not sure an All The President's Men-style Spider-Ham movie would grab kids' attention. Then again, Into the Spider-Verse did a good job with balancing the standard superhero tropes with complex themes and story elements, so maybe there is a way to give Spider-Ham a compelling journalism tale filled with plenty of pig/pork puns and oversized mallets.
For those of you unfamiliar with Spider-Ham, a.k.a. Peter Porker, he was introduced in 1983's Marvel Tails Starring Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham #1, hailing from a world of anthropomorphic, talking animals. Originally a spider, he was bitten by a radioactive pig and retained his arachnid abilities. John Mulaney's version of Spider-Ham shared the same backstory, and he teamed up with Miles Morales, the older Peter Parker, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man Noir and Peni Parker to save New York City from Kingpin.
As things stand now, all that's in the works right now for the Spider-Verse franchise is a direct sequel and a spinoff starring Spider-Gwen, Spider-Woman and Silk. But as producer and co-writer Phil Lord acknowledged, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the type of movie that could spawn 30 sequels, each centered on a different Spider-hero from the multiverse. So perhaps there will come a day when Spider-Ham gets the spotlight to himself to... ham it up.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is playing in theaters now, and be sure to read CinemaBlend's review of the movie. If you're interested in learning what movies are coming out next year, look through our 2019 release schedule.
