Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse is full of surprises, including live action cameos. VFX Supervisor Mike Lasker details how they pulled it off.
Warning: Spoilers for Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Ahead!
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse raises the bar with its animation, there is no doubt about that. But it does so much more than that, including weaving in live action. Not just things we have seen already in the past films, such as Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man, but new footage as well.
Fans see Ms. Chen from Venom conversing with Spot, which is exciting. But perhaps the most incredible and unexpected cameo is Donald Glover as the Prowler. In an exclusive interview with VFX Supervisor Mike Lasker, Mama’s Geeky learned how that cameo was filmed, and how difficult it was to pull off.
He also dives into the other Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse live action cameos.
Donald Glover Is In Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse – IN LIVE ACTION!
For the Donald Glover cameo, the studios went out and did a shoot just like if it was for a live action film. They even put Donald Glover in that cage and built a Prowler suit for him.
“We had to make sure the eye lines were good and the scaling was right. To feel like he was in there, they lit him with orange light. They even built that Prowler suit for him. We had talked about maybe doing a CG suit for him, but in the end, it’s like build it because I mean, if you could do it for real. It’s in live action, like have him put a suit on. So that was a lot of fun.”
Ms. Chen’s Across The Spider-Verse Cameo
Ms. Chen from Venom has a great scene in Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse when The Spot realizes that his holes can lead him through the multiverse.
Mike Lasker says, “I love doing live action because I used to do a lot of live action work and visual effects and it was so fun to get back into that and work with plates and greens screens. Spot reflecting in the glass and making it feel like he’s there was a really fun. I haven’t done that in a while. It’s great.”
Andrew Garfield’s Across The Spider-Verse Cameo
Fans will be thrilled to see Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man make an appearance in Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse as well. It is a hologram and was purposefully made to look like it was part of that universe.
“We wanted to make it look like it was in our world of Spider-Verse, so we had to take the plates from the movie and make them look like the holograms that everyone else was in order to tie it in. That was actually really tricky, too.”
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse VFX Supervisor Mike Lasker goes on to explain that all of the cameos, and all of the webs in the canon web set up where you see Toby and you see the other characters, everything had to fit. He admits that was really tricky as well.
One thing is for sure though, they really pulled it off.
NEXT: Peter Ramsey Talks Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
About Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Miles Morales returns for the next chapter of the Oscar®-winning Spider-Verse saga, Spider-Man™: Across the Spider-Verse. After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters the Spider Society, a team of Spider-People charged with protecting the Multiverse’s very existence.
But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must set out on his own to save those he loves most. Anyone can wear the mask – it’s how you wear it that makes you a hero.
