While the live-action Spider-Man movies are chiefly a platform for various versions of Peter Parker to shine, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse showed moviegoers that he’s not the only one who can sling webs throughout the multiverse. Along with Shameik Moore’s Miles Morales taking over as Spidey in his universe, we met various Spider-heroes in the 2018 animated movie, and a lot more will be featured later this year in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. One of these newcomers is Pavitr Prabhakar, a.k.a. Spider-Man India, and it’s been revealed he’ll be voiced by a Deadpool star.
Initially reported by One Take News and confirmed by THR, Karan Soni has been added to the cast of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. His vocal outing as Spider-Man India comes following his time in the first two Deadpool movies as Dopinder, the taxi driver who Wade Wilson befriended. There’s no word yet on if Soni will reprise Dopinder in Deadpool 3, as the only other officially confirmed actor to be joining Ryan Reynolds in the threequel is Hugh Jackman, who will, of course, be back as Wolverine.
Outside of the superhero genre, Karan Soni is arguably best known for his various roles on the TV series Miracle Workers, which co-stars Daniel Radcliffe, Steve Buscemi and Geraldine Viswanathan, among others. Soni’s other notable credits include 2016’s Ghostbusters, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, Always Be My Maybe, Trolls World Tour, Strange World and some appearances on The Goldbergs. We learned a few months back through concept art that Spider-Man India would be present in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, so it’s nice to have an actor to pair with this depiction of the character.
Introduced to the comics in 2005’s Spider-Man: India #1, Pavitr Prabhakar received his powers from an ancient yogi who mystically enabled him to do whatever a spider can. However, like Peter Parker though, he learned that with great power comes great responsibility after he opted not to stop a criminal, which later resulted in the death of his uncle in Mumbai. Following his debut miniseries, Pavitr returned in the Spider-Verse and Spider-Geddon storylines, and he was also part of the Web Warriors team.
Spider-Man India is reportedly playing a “significant role” in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, so don’t expect Karan Soni to only say a few lines. Other new web-slingers popping up in the sequel include Issa Rae’s Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman and Daniel Kaluuya’s Hobie Brown/Spider-Punk, along with Oscar Isaac’s Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099, who cameoed in Into the Spider-Verse’s post-credits scene, stepping into the spotlight as leader of the multiverse-protecting Spider-Force. Along with Miles and Hailee Steinfeld’s Gwen Stacy find themselves at odds with Spider-Force, they’ll also have to deal with the portal-conjuring villain known as The Spot.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse spins its web in theaters on June 2, and the follow-up, Beyond the Spider-Verse, will come out on March 29, 2024. Don’t forget to plan your other visits to the theater accordingly by looking over the 2023 new movie releases.
