How Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Landed Its Excellent Shaun Of The Dead Gag

Spider-Man spidey senses in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
(Image credit: (Sony))

2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has a ton of Easter Eggs. The Oscar-winning animated film is packed with all kinds of references within its impressive animation style that takes some serious examination. Did you happen to notice the awesome Shaun of the Dead gag? Well, the co-writer and co-director just shared his pitch to Edgar Wright that made it possible. Check it out:

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Rodney Rothman shared the exact email he sent to the Shaun of the Dead writer/director during the making of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. As the filmmaker detailed, he wanted to add alternate posters of movies hidden around the movie. He asked Edgar Wright if he would throw out an idea for a movie of his that could have theoretically been made in Miles Morales’ Earth. The result was a poster of a fictional movie called From Dusk Till Shaun, which can be seen in Times Square throughout the movie. Check it out below:

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movie posters, Edgar Wright Shaun of the Dead reference, Seth Roge

(Image credit: (Sony))

See it? In this image, it’s just to the right of Spidey, along with a ton of other awesome references. On the far left, there is a fictional movie starring Seth Rogen called Hold Your Horses. According to Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, that particular fake movie is a sequel to another Rogen jockey film. This image also renames Snapchat “Picaboo,” and John Mulaney and Nick Kroll’s Broadway show Hi, Hello instead of Oh, Hello. The detail here is amazing!

Following the email reveal, Edgar Wright jumped on Twitter to respond with this:

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It's all so cool. The filmmaker was happy to be involved in the making of Spider-Verse with his alternate movie From Dusk Till Shaun. Edgar Wright started his career with the comedic zombie film before making other hits like Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Baby Driver. As he mentioned, He he still has a full-sized version of the movie poster from Spider-Verse hung up. Here’s a closer look at it:

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The most interesting thing about this particular Spider-Verse Easter egg, which Edgar Wright alludes to in his tweet, is that From Dusk Till Shaun was almost actually a movie. After the success of the zom-com starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, they were actually contemplating a sequel. Here’s what Pegg said about From Dusk Till Shaun years ago:

I jokingly wrote a treatment for From Dusk Till Shaun, which was a sequel to Shaun of the Dead. It was all about Shaun and Ed having to go up to Edinburgh, or something. I don't know. It was ridiculous. And it was a joke. It wasn't like a serious pitch. Edgar thought it would be funny to do the film again, but with vampires. But it was all just pub talk.

I guess it only lives in an alternate universe now. But the posting had fans flooding with comments, asking the filmmaker to actually make it. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2 is coming on October 7, 2022. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more updates on the animated sequel.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.