John Mulaney wanted to do a much different character for Into the Spider-Verse

John Mulaney brought some outtakes of his recordings for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to The Tonight Show.

There is no denying the absolute juggernaut that superhero movies have become in the last ten years. Even the ones that are considered flops still make at least $700 million at the box office. One particular things these films have done extremely well is casting. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is no exception.

At first, it wouldn’t seem like this was the case if you heard John Mulaney was cast as a hero in a Spider-Man movie. Mulaney almost never plays anything other than himself save for his work on the animated series Big Mouth and his times as George St. Geegland for Oh, Hello. 

But Mulaney benefited from the out-of-the-box approach to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Not only is it an animated feature film but it’s one that features several different variations of the Spider-Man character. So Mulaney was perfectly cast as Spider-Ham, also known as Peter Porker.

If you’re unfamiliar with Spider-Ham, and there is a good chance you are, the character was introduced by Marvel in 1983 as a Spider-Man parody. It existed in an anthropomorphic universe alongside other animal-inspired heroes like Captain Americat, Black Panda, and Iron Mouse.

The filmmakers’ plan to make Spider-Ham a comedic character that continually made references to the 80s made John Mulaney a perfect choice. Anyone who knows Mulaney’s act knows that the former Saturday Night Live writer is prone to obscure references himself. But as Mulaney told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, he wanted to do even more with Spider-Ham:

First, it’s surprising that even with an animated film like Into the Spider-Verse there is still so much secrecy surrounding the project. This isn’t a huge film included in the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet Mulaney wasn’t given too much information much like the treatment the live action actors get.

It’s clear that Mulaney isn’t used to working on PG-rated material once he was given the green light to improvise as Spider-Ham. As entertaining as it would be to hear f-bombs from a pig in a Spider-Man costume, it probably wasn’t ideal for this particular iteration. Maybe Spider-Ham can get his own R-rated spinoff? If Deadpool and Wolverine can, why not Peter Porker?

During his Tonight Show appearance, John Mulaney also described attending a Steely Dan concert with his wife and Saturday Night Live’s Pete Davidson. It’s worth a watch and only further proves that Mulaney is one of the funniest comedians around and one of the best late night guests.