'Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse' Almost Introduced Australian Spider-Man, Read The Script Page Here

Last weekend's release of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse unleashed a handful of new superpowered Spider-People who had never been seen on the big screen before. In fact, many of them were characters who fans thought they'd probably never see in a Spider-Man movie, let alone on screen with each other alongside Peter Parker and Miles Morales. But there's (at least) one version of Spider-Man who was considered for an appearance in the movie, but ended up being abandoned: Australian Spider-Man.

Find out what happened to Australian Spider-Man below.

In a movie that features the likes of Spider-Gwen, Noir Spider-Man, Peni Parker and her technologically advanced spider-controlled robot, and even Spider-Ham, how is it that someone as simple as Australian Spider-Man didn't make the cut? We first learned about the character from Phil Lord & Chris Miller, but new details on why he wasn't used and how he would have been immediately killed, have surfaced.

In Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse, the plot finds the Spider-People from several parallel dimensions converging on Miles Morales' version of Earth, right in Brooklyn, New York. After they've spent some time there for awhile, they realize that unless they find a way to get back to their own dimensions, they will glitch out of existence. And the way directors Rodney Rothman, Peter Ramsey and Bob Persichetti almost explained that was with the use of Australian Spider-Man. Rothman told CinemaBlend:

"We created an Australian Spider-Man. He showed up with the other Spiders, and he said he was 24 hours ahead, and then he glitched to death. So everyone was going to be like, 'Oh, it's going to be 24 hours.' That was the official ticking clock."

Here's the script page revealing Australian Spider-Man's death (via io9):

That's a pretty funny way to reveal a plot detail and start the ticking clock, though one has to wonder why Australian Spider-Man would have been the only one who wasn't actually from a different version of New York. But that's besides the point. Why wasn't Australian Spider-Man used in the movie? Well, the idea simply came too late, and it made Rothman look a little foolish. The director explained:

"When I handed that draft of the script in I was nearly fired, mainly just because it was at a time in production when the idea of adding another Spider-Man... it demonstrated a profound lack of understanding of film production."

The director had a good laugh about his mistake, and now we're blessed with the idea of Australian Spider-Man in our imagination. Considering the kind of voice talent rounded up to play the various other Spider-People in Into the Spider-Verse, one would assume that someone like Chris Hemsworth, Hugh Jackman or Eric Bana could have been brought in to voice the webslinger from down under. And he'd probably be wearing a crocodile tooth necklace and a safari hat of some kind.

The good news is that there's a Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sequel in the works, so there's a chance Australian Spider-Man could come into play at some point. After all, there's another character who popped up during the post-credits scene of the movie who makes the appearance of other Spider-People that much more likely.