SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE Storyboard Art Shows Ganke's Deleted Scene; He Will Have a Bigger Role in the Sequel
While Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse was freakin’ incredible, there was one aspect from the comics that was really explored in the movie — Miles Morales’s best friend and roommate Ganke Lee.
Ganke plays such an important role in Miles’s Spider-Man story, and I thought for sure he would have a bigger role in the film. But, as you know, they didn’t really do much with him. We saw him working on his computer a lot and faint from seeing a Spider-Ham talk.
Well, it turns out that early on in the production he did have a bigger role. In a new book, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - The Art of the Movie, there are a few pages that are dedicated to Ganke, and there’s even some storyboard art by Riccardo Durante that shows a deleted scene where Ganke was a part of the sequence where Miles and Peter B. Parker were swinging through the forest trying to escape Olivia Octavius, a.k.a. Doc Ock. You can check out that art below:
So, they did play with the idea but ultimately decided to keep the focus on Miles Morales, which is understandable.
But fans will be happy to know that Ganke will have a much bigger role in the sequel! Production designer Justin K. Thompson shared a quote about Ganke in the book, and according to CB, he revealed that “he's got a lot more story to come. After having his role cut down for Spider-Verse, Ganke has a bright future alongside Miles in the coming films.” He also said:
"He is one of the most gifted students at the Academy. We see him stay up all night working on his quantum entanglement thesis. He's so single-mindedly focused that he seems completely oblivious to anything his roommate might be up to."
Ganke is a fun character, so I’m looking forward to seeing how they end up utilizing him in the future Spider-Verse films. I’m sure it’ll be a little different from the comics, since they were both already good friends before attending Brooklyn Visions Academy. In the movie, they didn’t know each other until Miles came to the Academy. So they’re mixing things up a bit, which is fine. They’ll eventually be great friends!