The #AcrossTheSpiderVerse team’s reaction to the directors wanting to hire 14-year-old Lego animator Preston Mutanga
“Is that legal?”
This year’s blockbuster sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse followed in the footsteps of the original film by once again pushing the boundaries of both storytelling and animation. As we joined our hero Miles Morales and co. on another adventure, we visited numerous dimensions including one which was rather brilliantly made with Lego.
But as director trio Kemp Powers, Joaquim Dos Santos, and Justin K. Thompson told us in a recent interview, originally there wasn’t a Lego dimension – instead in its place was one filled with “crazy aliens” and more. However, when you are working with filmmaker duo Lord and Miller, who helmed 2014’s beloved animated feature The Lego Movie, you just have to include Lego somewhere in the film. And so, when the pair, who were on-board here as writers and producers, suggested this, the directors knew exactly who should animate the scene.
That person was Preston Mutanga, a 14-year-old whose fan-made Lego version of the trailer for the film had previously gone viral. He was quite simply the perfect choice, although it certainly did raise some questions as Santos explained to GamesRadar+: “When Phil and Chris mentioned the idea, we said the kid should make it! Their reaction was asking – “Is that legal?” We decided to find out and had our producer track him down, but he didn’t believe at first it was the film studio reaching out to him! We gave him the assignment and Chris Miller worked closely with him on it.”
The name Preston Mutanga might not ring a bell, but anyone who has contributed to the $235 million and counting box office haul for “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” has seen his work on the big screen.
Mutanga is a 14-year-old from Toronto, Canada, who landed a role as an animator on “Across the Spider-Verse” after he recreated the film’s trailer shot-for-shot in the style of LEGO blocks and left producers Chris Lord and Phil Miller dazzled (via The New York Times). Not too bad for your industry debut.