Oscar Isaac says his Spider-Man 2099 is the only iteration of the superhero who is completely serious in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The long-anticipated sequel to Sony's Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse will see Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) once again team up with different Spider-People from across the multiverse to fend off a slew of villains. As well as reuniting with Gwen Stacey's Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld) and Peter B. Parker's Spider-Man (Jake Johnson), Miles will also meet new alternate renditions of the character, most notably Jessica Drew's Spider-Woman (Issa Rae) and Miguel O'Hara's futuristic Spider-Man 2099 (Isaac). With Across the Spider-Verse's release date now slated for June 2, 2023, it will act as the first installment of a two-part story, with the third installment, now titled Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, releasing in March 2024.
Isaac was first introduced as Spider-Man 2099 in a post-credits scene for Into the Spider-Verse. In light of the inter-dimensional activities of Miles and his Spider counter-parts, Isaac's Spidey made the first "autonomous multiverse jump," initially deciding to travel into the dimension featuring the Spider-Man from the original 1967 TV series. When Sony released a short snippet from the upcoming Spider-Verse sequel back in December, the character once again returned to the franchise, establishing himself as a major element of the story. But this time, Spider-Man 2099 was seemingly fighting Miles as the two hopped chaotically between dimensions.
Isaac has now divulged a bit more about the personality of his incarnation of the web-slinging vigilante, and it appears that much of the comedy the character brings to the film comes from him being "very serious." In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, the actor revealed that Spider-Man 2099 is "the one Spider-Man that doesn't have a sense of humor," meaning that he stands out as the only version who doesn't dish out wisecracks. See Isaac's full quote below:
Exclusive: "It's been really fun working on that with Phil Lord and Kemp Powers. The thing I can say is, what makes this character so funny is that he's the one Spider-Man that doesn't have a sense of humor. Because all of them act like-- they're like wisecracks, right? Everybody wisecracks, except this guy just doesn't. He's a very serious Spider-Man."
This description of the character certainly matches what audiences have seen already. In the recently released first 15 minutes of Across the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man 2099 is seen fighting Vulture in Gwen's universe before calling for backup from Jessica Drew's Spider-Woman, illustrating how seriously he takes his superhero work. The fact that the character also quickly became annoyed with his 1967 counterpart, as well as his apparent preference to fight Miles off-the-bat rather than introduce himself, suggests that this Spider-Man has no time for the trademark quips that have become synonymous with the character. However, Isaac's insistence that this lack of humor is "what makes this character so funny" promises the potential for much comedic conflict between Spider-People.
With much secrecy still surrounding the forthcoming Spider-Verse sequel, this revelation provides more interesting context for Spider-Man 2099's behaviour so far. It certainly invites speculation as to how this dead-pan seriousness will affect both the story and interactions between different versions of the web-slinging hero. There may even be some similarities between Isaac's Spider-Man 2099 and Nicolas Cage's brooding Spider-Man Noir from Into the Spider-Verse. But with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse not releasing until 2023, audiences will have to wait a little longer to see this very sincere interpretation of Spider-Man in action.
