Here’s why Australian Spider-Man’s death was cut from ‘Into The Spider-Verse’

Co-director Rodney Rothman said he "nearly got fired" for adding the character in the first place

The co-director and co-writer of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse has explained why the death of Australian Spider-Man was cut from the final movie.

Into The Spider-Verse, which was released in cinemas last month, is an animated adventure that sees teen Miles Morales “become Spider-Man of his reality, crossing his path with five counterparts from other dimensions to stop a threat for all realities.”

Speaking to Backstory, co-director and co-writer Rodney Rothman said: “I invented a character I called Australian Spider-Man, who was also part of the group of Spiders that appear halfway through. He told everyone he’d been there for a day already because he was 24 hours ahead, and then he glitched to death very gruesomely in front of the others.”

Rothman continued: “They all then look at each other and say, ‘Oh, my gosh, we only have 24 hours to live!’”

He added that he “nearly got fired” for adding the character so late in the production process because it “showed a profound lack of understanding of the process of animation production and where we were in that moment, so that particular idea didn’t even make it to storyboards.” “People just met the next day and looked at me and were like, ‘Go eff yourself’,” he said.

Into The Spider-Verse is nominated for Best Animated Feature at this year’s Oscars. It won Best Animated Feature Film at the Golden Globes earlier this month.

The animated Marvel movie is soundtracked by the likes of Vince Staples, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, and Ty Dolla $ign. Controversial rapper XXXTentacion was revealed as a “surprise guest” on the OST a day before it was released.