The release of Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse has brought us back into the multiverse, and you know what that means: It’s Easter egg time!
Aside from being a remarkable feat of animation, Across the Spider-Verse takes advantage of its infinite universes to bring us a dazzling number of nods to other Spider-Man properties, be they comics, TV shows, video games, or even the MCU. There are so many Easter eggs that it’s impossible to catch them all in one go — this film demands a rewatch — but we’ve lined up 13 of the most exciting Spider-Man-related Easter eggs in Across The Spider-Verse. Let’s take a leap of faith and dive right in! (Spoiler alert, naturally.)
1. J.K. Simmons returns as J. Jonah Jameson.
There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and J.K. Simmons playing J. Jonah Jameson. No matter what universe Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) find themselves in, Simmons always voices the head of The Daily Bugle — even in LEGO form! The trend carries over from Simmons playing Jameson in both Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man movies and Tom Holland’s. Truly, no one can demand pictures of Spider-Man quite like him.
2. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man gets a shout-out from Miguel O’Hara.
When we first meet Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) in Across the Spider-Verse, he’s battling a Renaissance-era Vulture (Jorma Taccone) and complaining about the chaos that has befallen the multiverse. “Don’t even get me started on Doctor Strange and that little nerd back on Earth-199999,” he yells.
Earth-199999 is the designation for the MCU, where Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Peter Parker (Tom Holland) did, in fact, mess around with the multiverse in Spider-Man: No Way Home. He’s not even in this film, but poor Holland-Spidey still finds a way to get roasted for being a nerd. Tough break.
3. The Spot comes face to face with one of Venom’s friends.
Credit: Sony Pictures
On the Spot’s (Jason Schwartzman) first jaunt around the multiverse, he crosses over to Earth-688, the world where Venom and Morbius take place. There, he pops into Mrs. Chen’s (Peggy Lu) convenience store and grabs a package of mints (called “Venomints,” in case there was any doubt about the crossover). Spot is shocked that Mrs. Chen doesn’t seem more freaked out by his appearance, but she’s been dealing with Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and Venom for a while now — she’s even hosted Venom herself! One little villain of the week isn’t going to scare her.
During his multiverse trip, Spot also stumbles into a LEGO Spider-Man universe — a nod to Spider-Man’s appearance in the LEGO Marvel Super Heroes games and to Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s LEGO Movie.
4. It’s Morbin’ time — but make it subtle.
Venom may get a more flashy reference in Across the Spider-Verse, but Sony’s Morbius also gets a quick shout-out. Gwen tells Miles that Miguel O’Hara is a vampiric Spider-Man, but overall still one of the good guys. Miles replies: “A vampire good guy? I’d pay good money to see that.” Well, Sony tried its best to bring a vampire good guy to the screen with Morbius, but turns out not many people wanted to pay good money to see that. It ended up being one of the biggest flops of 2022. Sorry, Miles.
5. Miles and Gwen recreate the upside-down Spider-Man kiss… kind of.
Credit: Sony Pictures
Right before Miles and Gwen head off to Mumbattan, they come close to recreating one of the most iconic moments from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man: the upside-down kiss between Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) and MJ (Kirsten Dunst). Of course, there’s a bit of a tragic Spider-Verse twist to it: Gwen stares through a hole in Spot’s destroyed apartment towards Miles’s home, thinking she’s never going to see him again. Little does she know, he’s hanging upside down in front of her, totally invisible. Here’s hoping everything turns out fine for these star-crossed kiddos.
6. A gallery of Spider-Verse villains includes Donald Glover’s MCU Prowler.
Remember when Donald Glover played Aaron Davis, aka the Prowler, aka Miles’s uncle, in Spider-Man: Homecoming? And remember how we never got to see him in action as the Prowler after that? Well, luckily for us, we get a fun glimpse at Glover’s Prowler in Across The Spider-Verse, when Gwen guides Miles through a rogue’s gallery of imprisoned Spider-Man villains who were multiversal anomalies. There, we see Glover dressed in a live-action Prowler suit in a fun (but all too brief) reminder of his squandered potential in the MCU. Here’s hoping he’ll be back in live-action — with his nephew in tow.
Other fun villains included in this sequence are Kraven the Hunter, Typeface, and a few Mysterio variants. There’s also a “boring rhino,” who’s just a real-life rhino instead of the villain Rhino. Hope it gets home safe!
7. A video game Spider-Man enters the fray.
The same scene that introduces Prowler’s Glover also gives us a look at a video game Spidey. Miguel’s holographic associate Lyla (Greta Lee) tells Miles about the different villains they’ve caught, including some “video game guys.”
Standing between the video game villains is another Spider-Man, though, who seems confused about who Lyla is referring to when she brings up video games. A little block of text labels him as “Insomniac Spider-Man,” which is not a reference to a sleepless Spidey, but rather to video game developer Insomniac Games, which made Marvel’s Spider-Man.
8. Too many Spider-Men to count.
Credit: Sony Pictures
The entirety of Miles’s time in Nueva York is one giant Easter egg, as he encounters a seemingly infinite amount of Spider-People. There’s Web-Slinger, a cowboy Spider-Man from animated series Ultimate Spider-Man; Peter Parkedcar, a sentient Spider-Mobile from the Amazing Spider-Man comics; and Sun-Spider, a Spidey with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome who uses mobility devices like crutches and a wheelchair. Sun-Spider was originally a Spidersona created by Dayn Broder, later appearing in the Spider-Verse comics. These are just three examples of the many characters inhabiting “Spidey Society,” so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for more!
9. Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man makes an appearance.
The live-action crossovers continue with the appearance of Andrew Garfield’s version of Spider-Man. Garfield pops up when Miguel explains the significance of canon events, the beats that connect every Spider-Man story. One of these is the death of a police captain close to Spider-Man, at which point we see footage from The Amazing Spider-Man of Peter crying over Chief Stacy’s (Denis Leary) body.
10. Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man shows up as well.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is no longer the only movie starring Garfield and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Men. Maguire’s version also appears during the canon event explanation, where we see him mourning his Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson). Just like with Garfield’s cameo, this moment is repurposed footage from an earlier Spider-Man movie. In the canon event involving Spider-Man and MJ’s romance, you can also see an image of Maguire’s Spider-Man’s famous upside-down kiss with MJ.
11. We also get a cameo from Spectacular Spider-Man.
Credit: Sony Pictures
As Miles struggles to come to terms with his father Jeff’s (Brian Tyree Henry) death being an upcoming canon event, another familiar Spider-Man shows up to try him through it. This is Peter Parker from the animated series Spectacular Spider-Man, voiced in Across the Spider-Verse by the show’s original voice actor Josh Keaton.
We also get glimpses of various animated Spider-Men in the canon events section and in the background in Nueva York, but this is the clearest allusion to the show.
12. Keep your ears open for Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock.
While Miles is on the run from his fellow Spider-Men, he passes an imprisoned Doc Ock, who utters a very familiar-sounding, “Hello, Peter.” That’s right, it’s none other than a soundbite from Alfred Molina’s performance as Doc Ock — the very same line that blew our minds when we first heard it in the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer.
13. Some familiar Spider-friends pop by at the end.
Across the Spider-Verse ends with a cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers: Miles is trapped in the Prowler’s clutches in the wrong universe, with Miguel hell-bent on hunting him down. Elsewhere in the multiverse, Gwen assembles a team to help save Miles, which includes Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson), Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni), and Hobie “Spider-Punk” Brown (Daniel Kaluuya). However, it also includes some old friends from Into The Spider-Verse, like Spider-Pig (John Mulaney), Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage), and Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn), who briefly appears earlier in the film. These three don’t play that large a role in Across The Spider-Verse, so it’s nice to see them again — hopefully they’ll all have a big resurgence in the next film, Beyond The Spider-Verse.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now in theaters.
