In a few weeks, audiences will be following Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) Across the Spider-Verse for the animated sequel to the Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The sequel has some big shoes to fill, as we rank Into the Spider-Verse very high on our list of the all-time great Spider-Man movies. And one of the reasons why we love the original film is because of its unique humor. Co-producers and writers Phil Lord and Chris Miller understand the rich canon of Spider-Man characters, and pulled several of them into the initial film, including Spider-Ham, as voiced by comedian John Mulaney.
But in speaking with Lord and Miller ahead of the upcoming Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, we mentioned a rumor about a gag reel from Into the Spider-Verse that contains all sorts of R-rated improvisations. The way the story goes, John Mulaney was trying all sorts of material for the character that consists of a talking pig in a Spider-Man costume. He even has his own theme song! And at some point, he was informed that this was a PG film. Even still, Lord and Miller told our ReelBlend podcast that there was a joke that was “safe” for audiences, but they still had to cut it after test-screening feedback.
As they told it:
Chris Miller: What was the line that wasn’t R-rated, but that was, it sort of killed the mood? But it was in the movie for a long time. When everyone was saying about how they lost their uncle or their dad, and he said…
Phil Lord: He talked about how he had a relative that had been turned into bacon.
Miller: They got electrocuted, right?
Lord: And he smelled delicious. His friend got electrocuted. Or, his uncle got electrocuted. And he ‘smelled so delicious.’
Miller: It was a great joke. I really wanted to keep it in. But everyone was like, ‘It’s killing the mood!’
Yes, we can understand how what basically amounts to a cannibalism joke in a Spider-Man movie might be too much for parents to explain to their children. This isn’t Yellowjackets, after all. While Chris Miller still was pushing to keep the bacon line in the movie’s final cut, it was feedback from the test screenings that convinced the duo to alter the line from something funny to something inspirational. As they explained:
Phil Lord: Funny enough, that character didn’t… Spider-Ham, his scores were a little bit depressed, for a character that was getting a lot of laughs. What the audience really wanted from him is to be real for just one moment.
Chris Miller: Yes. And that moment ended up being him saying, ‘You can’t always save everybody.
Lord: That was added because it needed to be not just like a punchline.
Miller: Instead of the fact that his uncle smelled delicious.
At the time of the release of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, John Mulaney shared ideas that he had for a Spider-Ham spinoff, and while they haven’t happened yet, we do know that we will be more Multiversal action as the third part of this trilogy, Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse, will be in theaters in March 2024. Stay up to date on that movie, and other films on the horizon, with our guide to Upcoming 2023 movies, which we refresh often.