When Fans Booed at the Original Ending of SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, the Creators Looked to STAR WARS for Inspiration
Last year’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was the middle movie in a fan-favorite franchise, and though the film ended up being a critical and commercial success in the box office, its original ending had fans feeling less than impressed.
In a recent interview with Collider, Across the Spider-Verse directors Kemp Powers, Joaquim Dos Santos, and Justin K. Thompson talked about how a test screening reaction to the film’s original ending, which included the scene where Miles is being captured, forced them to add the ending we know now, where Gwen Stacy puts together a Spider-team to save Miles. They were able to come to this decision after reflecting on their favorite middle film from a trilogy, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back.
Thompson explained:
“The ending ... where Spider-Gwen goes out and gathers Peter B. and Mayday and Peni and Noir and Ham, and she kind of gets the band back together to go save Miles, and you’re filled with hope and excitement that, ‘Oh, they’re gonna go back’ .... that wasn’t there until about six weeks before the film wrapped. We actually had a screening and it just ended with Miles on the bag, and everybody was just like, ‘Boo!’ And we went, ‘Oh god, what are we gonna do? We gotta do something.’ We ran back and we quickly scrambled and brainstormed and realized. We went back and watched The Empire Strikes Back again, and said, ‘How did Empire Strikes Back do it?’ And we realized, ‘Oh, they gave you hope at the end.’”
Thompson continued:
“Okay, we need our ‘Go Rescue Han’ moment. So we boarded it, animated it, put it all together within six weeks, and then screened it again. The audience went through the roof, and we went, ‘Okay!’”
Powers added:
“In our minds, we had the continuity, like we knew where the story was going. So we were like, “Okay, this is fine because we know where it’s gonna pick up.’ It’s a cliffhanger for a reason. But we didn’t know until we put it in front of an audience how it kind of came across like a snuff film.”
The middle film in a trilogy has the tricky job of furthering the story without giving the ending away. Across the Spider-Verse did a great job, in the same vein of Empire Strikes Back, and it will be great to see what happens when Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse is released.