The Ending of SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE Was Changed Six Weeks Before the Film Was Released
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse was an incredibly fun and exciting movie, and that cliffhanger of an ending sure did stir up emotions with the fans! There is an aspect of the ending that was recently revealed in an interview with Empire Magazine in which co-director Justin K. Thompson and producer Christopher Miller said that the ending was changed only six weeks before the film was released.
The initial ending of the film didn’t see Gwen Stacy assemble a team to find Miles Morales. When asked if they were worried about that ending, Thompson said:
“I was really worried about it until about six weeks before we finished the movie, and we added it. The movie kind of fell flat at the end and was really a bummer. We had a screening and thankfully we were able to come up with the strategy of how to bring all these characters back together, and bring the Spot back — because he didn’t come back — and show Rio and Jeff, and tag all the characters.”
Miller went on to share his thoughts on the ending using the Star Wars film Empire Strikes Back as an example:
“We learned the same lesson that Empire Strikes Back learned. That movie used to end after he finds out the big twist and Han Solo gets taken away. They didn’t have the scene where he gets the new hand and they stare out at the star field. They did that as a reshoot, because they felt like they needed a little bit of hope for the next film. We learned that lesson. We were like, ‘It’s a cliffhanger, it’s supposed to end on a thing where you’re like, ‘Oh no!’’ So it ended with Miles meeting his alternate self and he’s trapped in an alternate dimension, oh no. But the audience really did need that moment of hope. Help is on the way. They’re gonna figure something out. If we were smarter, we would have learned that earlier.”
It’s a good thing they did add that ending with Gwen Stacy and the gathering of the Spider-Verse team! It totally left me with a sense of hope and excitement! It was a nice little punch to the emotions at the end of the film.
Now, we’ve just got to wait a while before we see this story continue in Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse!