Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse‘s coolest character is getting his own spinoff. Not that he would care about that because he hates labels!
Daniel Kaluuya, who voices the character of Hobie Brown a.k.a the appropriately-nicknamed Spider-Punk, is developing and co-writing an animated feature focusing on the chaotic rock-star-slash-runway-model-slash-unexpected-hero alongside Ajon Singh for Sony Pictures Animation, Entertainment Weekly has confirmed.
Details on the feature’s plot haven’t been are still under wraps, but it can be safely assumed that Kaluuya will reprise his role as Hobie, who quickly became a favorite among fans after his debut as the unexpected mentor of Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) in Across the Spider-Verse. Kaluuya is also expected to return for Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, the delayed sequel to the 2023 box office hit.
In the comics, Spider-Punk is a fairly recent creation: Dan Slott and Olivier Coipel invented him in 2015 as a punk, alternate-universe version of an established character. Hobie resides on Earth-138 and uses his guitar as his main weapon in his never-ending battle to take down corrupt systems.
Spider-Verse directors and producers previously chatted with EW about the character’s surprise popularity among the franchise’s fans, joking that Hobie ultimately became the film’s anti-authoritarian secret weapon.
“He was in and out of the picture for a little while because we weren’t sure which elements we were going to stick in this part and which were going to migrate to the next movie,” explained writer-producer Phil Lord. “When we met Daniel Kaluuya, we realized that he had to be Hobie Brown, no matter the cost. And Hobie had to be in the movie because that personality needed to be part of the story.”
“Some people were like, ‘Is there a way to simplify this? There’s so many characters. Do we really need Spider-Punk?'” added fellow writer-producer Chris Miller. “But once we got to know Daniel, we rewrote the part so it became more necessary.”
Lord and Miller said that because they’ve long been fascinated by Hobie, that character was at the top of their list when it came time to brainstorm new Spideys for the sequels. “The challenge is that Miles is a really cool character — one of the coolest Spider-Men that you can think of,” Miller said. “Coming up with a character who is even cooler somehow is a really fun challenge.”
It’s safe to say they rose to the challenge.
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As Spider-Punk is still in its early development stages, it remains unclear when it’ll be swinging into theaters. Fans will have to make due with Hobie’s return in the third and final installment of Miles’ animated journey.
Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse will premiere in theaters on June 4, 2027.
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