If there’s one word anyone involved with a script both loves and fears, it has to be “revision.” With each new draft, and every twist and turn those subsequent versions take, sometimes a scene you really love has to go. Co-writer/director of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Rodney Rothman knows that just as well as anyone, as there was one scene he really wished made it into the film: that moment where Peter B. Parker finally gets his bagel.
This knowledge comes from Rodney Rothman’s posts on Twitter, as he was on hand during a recent watch party for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and mentioned the following:
According to Rodney Rothman’s story, this ending tag came from his four-year old child, who was apparently not very happy that the hungry Spider-Man left Alchemax’s labs without a bagel. So much as we almost got a post-credits scene where John Mulaney’s Spider-Pig ushered the three live-action Peter Parker actors into this Spider-Verse, a different post-credits scene would have shown Jake Johnson’s Peter B. Parker eating a hard-earned ring of carbs after a huge, multidimensional adventure.
Why would a four year old be so upset about a bagel? Quite simply, it’s a call back to when Peter B. Parker and Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) try to steal an important server from the Alchemax offices. After avoiding Dr. Olivia “Liv” Octavius (Kathryn Hahn), a character very familiar with how the times are sometimes a’changin, this version of Peter is a bit peckish and decides to steal a bagel from the cafeteria as he and Miles make a mad dash towards escape. Which lead to the following scene taking place in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse:
A lot of this first trip to the Spider-Verse could have turned out differently thanks to a lot of other tweaks and turns that were mentioned during the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’s watch party. In various forms of the film’s script, certain decisions almost saw scenes like Miles Morales and Spider-Gwen kissing each other goodbye, as well as Miles and his uncle playing a Mortal Kombat style game with some heavy foreshadowing. That’s not even counting the numerous ad-libs that John Mulaney and Chris Pine launched into in the recording studio.
Yet there are some rare moments that got to stick around through pretty much every single draft of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The Spider Gods did taketh away, but they did also giveth in the form of jokes such as the one Rodney Rothman mentions as going the distance:
Sometimes a joke makes the cut, and sometimes it gets snipped into oblivion. Nothing can be done about it except to enjoy the film that was made as a result, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse does play rather fantastically without this humorous closure. Still, it’s good to know that Peter B. Parker got home safely, and that the bagel of his choosing was waiting to greet him.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is currently available on Digital HD, 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD; as well as through Netflix’s streaming library. The next departing trip into the Spider-Verse will be in the sequel set for release on October 7, 2022; which means there’s probably a handful of jokes being re-written and/or deleted as we speak. So spare a thought for the punchlines that might have been.
