Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse delves deep into various iterations of the iconic web-slinger thanks to its multiversal plot, but now, it appears the film itself has more than one version swinging around. Across the Spider-Verse editor Andrew Leviton has confirmed Twitter reports that audiences may see different scenes when watching the highest-rated film on Letterboxd.
Leviton responded to a fan who noticed that a scene with Miguel O’Hara, Spider-Man 2099 and his holographic helper Lyla now ends with a selfie instead of Lyla pointing at Miguel.
“I was wondering when people might start noticing…,” Leviton tweeted.
I was wondering when people might start noticing… https://t.co/E6G9tUXmDE
— Andy! Leviton (@AlliterAndy) June 23, 2023
According to IGN, Leviton also shared the below tweet, which confirmed changes to The Spot’s dialog:
the spot also has slightly different dialogue in that hologram flashback before he uses his own collider, in the version i watched he says “-which would… not be good” but in the most widespread version online he goes “oh what the heck”
— Tapu (@tapurambles) June 22, 2023
As for why Across the Spider-Verse has at least two different versions bouncing around theaters, the most likely explanation is the “update” that Sony Pictures sent out to fix an audio issue with the film’s opening scene. Some audiences were having issues hearing Spider-Gwen’s narration during her drum solo, which prompted the studio to push the update.
Via Variety:
While the sound issue was isolated to only a “handful of theaters,” a source close to the movie tells Variety that “all the prints” of the film have been updated, adding that it’s not entirely uncommon for distributors to send re-edited prints to exhibitors, “if the opportunity presents itself.”
Whether each theater had their copy of the film successfully updated, or when, could lead to audiences seeing slightly different versions of Across the Spider-Verse. Although, the dialog changes were something that wasn’t mentioned when the update was announced, but clearly, Sony did a little tweaking, which Leviton has now confirmed.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now playing in theaters.