Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse team explain why theatrical version was changed

❘ Published: 2023-08-15T16:59:45

A still from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Sony Pictures

Spider-Man fans have been mourning the loss of the original theatrical version of Across the Spider-Verse, a cut of the movie they may never see again – but its producers have now explained the changes.

When Across the Spider-Verse hit the big screen earlier this year, the euphoric response was followed by an intense desire to peruse each frame of the movie for Easter eggs and other fun, tiny details. After all, there are hundreds of Spidey variants, and that’s before we get to the thousands of background nods to comics, movies, and all sorts.

However, the digital release of the film has been shockingly sobering: many viewers quickly realized that it wasn’t the same movie they watched in cinemas; similar, but not identical.

Well, while fans continue pointing out the changes on social media, the producers have now addressed why the digital release is a different version of the movie.

Across the Spider-Verse producers explain changes to original theatrical version

In an interview with GamesRadar+, Phil Lord and Chris Miller opened up about the changes fans have noticed in the digital release of Across the Spider-Verse.

“There was an international version that was made almost two months before the movie came out because it had to be translated into different languages and these French censors have to decide what the rating of the movie is in Europe,” Miller explained.

There are some changes in ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE: in the Digital version Miles remembers Miguel saying that the Spider that bit him is not from his dimension but in the Theater version Miles thinks to himself with Textboxes and everything. pic.twitter.com/FvZ4oRoHkF
— Brian Long (@BriansFilms) August 9, 2023

“The team at [Sony Pictures] Imageworks still had some shots that they felt they could do better for the finished version. So, they cleaned up and tweaked those things.”

During this process, other crew members offered up other ideas to improve the cut, hoping the final version would be one fans “pore over forever.”

“Certain crew members – people in the sound department or on the animation team – were like, ‘Oh, could we do this instead?’ Let’s do the best possible version we can. Because it’s a multiverse movie, it’s like there’s a multiverse of the movie – that was really the reasoning behind it. It was trying to make the best possible version that everyone was going to be the proudest of,” Miller added, with Lord saying: “I think most of the changes are improvements.”

Check out our other Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse coverage below: