In the latest issue of Empire Magazine, Oscar Isaac spoke out about his role in Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse. The actor seems to have a knack for nabbing Marvel roles; he previously portrayed En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse in X-Men: Apocalypse and Marc Spector in Moon Knight. He voiced Miguel O’Hara for a brief scene in Into The Spider-Verse and will reprise the role in the upcoming sequel.
When asked if it was a surprise to see people go crazy for Into The Spider-Verse, Isaac said the movie was “one of the most unique and amazing animated films” he had ever seen. He felt glad to voice Spider-Man 2099 in the post-credits scene:
It’s always difficult to anticipate these things, but I did feel it was one of the most unique and amazing animated films I’d ever seen. It was alive and fresh and really funny. I was so glad just to do that one little bit at the end, so I got very excited when I got the call saying, “We see [Miguel)] as a real character in the next one…”
Isaac further revealed that Miguel will be a “reluctant ringleader”, and compared him to a kindergarten teacher.
He’s the reluctant ringleader of these wild Spider-People. He’s annoyed at having to be the leader. He’s naturally someone of a heavier disposition – a loner – so a lot of the humour comes from him having to be this kind of kindergarten teacher.
Isaac considers Spider-Man 2099 to be the only “not-funny” Spider-Person:
He’s the only “not-funny” Spider-Person. Which makes him funny [laughs]. It was fun crafting that with Phil Lord and Kemp Powers: finding that throughline where you can take the piss out of him because he takes himself so seriously.
Isaac confirmed that Miles Morales and Miguel O’Hara will be at odds for much of the film, and said that he wants to control the “narrative”, or rather, the web of life and destiny?
Yeah. One of the themes of this movie is, where do you belong? What’s supposed to happen: what’s pre-ordained? A character like mine is trying so hard to control things. He wants to control the narrative, (as) a result of tragedies that have unfolded in his life. So, he gets tested when he comes up against a live-wire like Miles.
When asked if he got to see the design for Nueva York while working on the movie, Isaac replied:
It’s an interesting process. It starts pretty wide open – all you’ve got is the script, and then gradually you get to see which seeds have grown, and how they craft visuals around that. The animation in the first film was so revolutionary, but in this one they take that idea and explode it. There is such beautiful (design) work in this movie.
The actor went on to say that a lot of last-minute line-tweaking was done with the character. It was easier to improvise until the last moment since most of the characters are masked.
Yes. It helps that a lot of these characters are masked, so you can keep changing lines right up to the last second [laughs]. For something as seemingly rigid as animation, the amount of experimentation we got to do on this movie was really fun. Their [Lord and Miller’s] way of working is a beautiful combination of finding pathos and humour, but also making fun of it and being willing to try anything.
Oscar Isaac said that Moon Knight would win a fight with Spider-Man 2099, owing to the unpredictable nature of the character.
It’s interesting – they have some similarities, actually. But the unpredictability of Moon Knight, the fact that he’s the man of a million faces… Yeah, I’ve got to go with Moon Knight on this one.
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse will release exclusively in theaters on June 2, 2023.
Source: Empire Magazine