We’re all familiar with Spider-Man, but how about Man-Spider? Into the Spider-Verse 2 had hundreds of different Spider-Man variants, but guttingly, we missed out on one of the best ones. Character designer Kris Anka has shared his unfortunately unused plans for Man-Spider in Across the Spider-Verse – a man with six arms, two legs and a spider-like face, including chelicerae (that’s fangs or pincers to you and me).
On Twitter, Anka shared his character designs and said; “He unfortunately didn’t make into the film, but my absolute favorite design I did was for Man-Spider. I pitched a gag that he was the Spider Society cafeteria cook because of his arms.”
One of the drawings features Man-Spider using his many appendages to serve coffee, take an order, collect a check, and cook bacon and eggs – all at the same time. He is depicted as bursting out of the traditional red and blue Spidey suit thanks to his hideous hunched back and all of his many arms.
Across the Spider-Verse introduced many new additions to the Spider-Verse cast and characters including; Spider-Punk, Cyborg Spider-Woman, Pavitr Prabhakar, Scarlet Spider, Spider Wolf, and more. But Man-Spider would’ve been a great addition, I’m sure we can all agree.
Across the Spider-Verse is the fourth highest-grossing movie of 2023 so far, having taken $642 million worldwide, far surpassing the box office of 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse, which took $384 million. After leaving things on a cliff-hanger, anticipation is now high for Beyond the Spider-Verse, which is currently set for release in 2024 – although this is quite likely to be pushed.
While we wait for the conclusion to the trilogy, check out our guides to Earth 42 and the Easter Eggs you may have missed. Be sure to check out our interview with Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld too.