Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Wrote Off A Huge Character


Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the animated movie that’s currently sitting as the highest-rated Spider-Man movie of all time on Rotten Tomatoes, which isn’t that hard when faced with competition like Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3.

We’ve uncovered a web of truth that reveals Doctor Strange nearly starred in the smash-hit film, but was strangely (sorry) cut from the movie.

Credit: Marvel

Considering the Peter Parker era of Spider-Man has shared a long comic book history with Doctor Strange — and the two characters sewed the seeds of a budding bromance in this year’s Avengers: Infinity War — a cameo from Strange would’ve been some major fan service. Also, just imagine getting Benedict Cumberbatch to reprise his role as the wily wizard and making Into the Spider-Verse even more meta than it already was.

Credit: Marvel

Co-writer Phil Lord told Den of Geek, “The first draft ended with (Strange),” before co-producer Chris Miller said “Oh, that’s right!”

“It ended with him saying, ‘Okay, I have some things to tell you,” said Lord. “It was the first draft, like three years ago. It ended with Doctor Strange. Literally, the last frame was Doctor Strange, going, ‘Hello.’”

It was probably those complicated rights issues that meant Doctor Strange was scrapped early on, leaving Spider-People like Spider-Ham (Peter Porker) and Spider-Gwen to take up the movie’s runtime. We already know how Tobey Maguire was supposed to suit up and voice Peter Parker again, but instead, Jake Johnson played the more mature wall-crawler.

Credit: Marvel

Heading back to the live-action versions of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, things are looking pretty grim for our Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man and the Sorcerer Supreme thanks to the events of Infinity War. Thankfully Spider-Man: Far From Home and Doctor Strange 2 have pretty much spoiled that they’ll be back.

With Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse webbing itself rave reviews, chances of a sequel are looking pretty likely, so who knows, maybe there could be a ‘strange’ appearance in the next movie?

Words by Mel Ramsay.