Here’s Why Across the Spider-Verse Looks Different in Its Digital Release

Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who co-wrote and produced the animated smash hit Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, spoke to Games Radar about the small changes fans have noticed in the digital release. The differences aren’t due to tweaks in the story or adjustments to their creative vision—it’s because the film was actually still in production for months after cuts were sent to theaters.

“There was an international version that was made almost two months before the movie came out because it had to be translated into different languages and these French censors have to decide what the rating of the movie is in Europe,” Miller explained. Additionally, as they had been given extra time to keep working, Miller said that some of the folks involved just… kept going. “Certain crew members—people in the sound department or on the animation team—were like, ‘Oh, could we do this instead?’”

The fact that Across the Spider-Verse is a universe-hopping movie actually lends itself to this approach, changing and adjusting small parts to get the “best possible version,” Miller said. “Because it’s a multiverse movie, it’s like there’s a multiverse of the movie—that was really the reasoning behind it.”

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now available digitally; a physical home release will be out September 5.

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