Daniel Kaluuya Discusses Gwen Stacy and Spider-Punk's Relationship in SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

Hobie Brown, aka Spider-Punk, was a huge hit with fans in Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse. He was such a fun, energetic, and vibrant character. The character was perfectly voiced by Daniel Kaluuya, who got to use his actual voice and accent in the movie.

One of the amusing things that this movie played with in regard to Spider-Punk was his relationship with Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld). There was something going on there that was really bugging the heck out of Mile Morales (Shameik Moore)! There was obviously some kind of connection between Hobie and Gwen, and in a recent interview with Kaluuya, he shared his thoughts on what that connection is. He told The Hollywood Reporter:

“Gwen and Hobie, I think something was happening. She left a lot of stuff at his house. They’re part of this band and one of the reasons why Hobie was there was to have Gwen’s back. He wouldn’t be rolling around with the [Spider Society] otherwise, but he felt that Gwen was not well. So I don’t think Gwen used Hobie for that. I think they have a genuine friendship, but how deep that goes is between Gwen and Hobie.”

Kaluuya then went on to talk about how Hobie would eventually have Miles’s back over the course of the film, and how the character was able to identify with him:

“He saw that Miles does what’s right no matter what, especially in that [Mumbattan] sequence. Hobie saw that it pissed people off, and he kind of liked that. Miles also didn’t back down. He didn’t apologize for doing what he did. He was like, ‘Nah, I wanna do this. I’m gonna keep on doing this.’ So Hobie saw that rebellious spirit, he identified with him and he wanted to support and help him. He looked at him and thought, ‘This kid is alright,’ after he probably heard certain things about him. So Hobie knew that Miles would unravel the system or the status quo within the Spider Society.”

I really enjoyed how the story arc for Spider-Punk played out, and he was just such a super cool character. As someone who was very much into punk culture growing up, it was awesome to see this character brought to life like this. I also loved how he was portrayed visually! Such a unique way to handle the character, and it worked perfectly!

I hope that we haven’t seen the last of Spider-Punk, this is a character that needs to see some more action! I would actually love to see a Spider-Verse film that puts the spotlight just on him! That would be awesome.