The concept of LEGO and Marvel colliding isn’t one that pop culture has been a stranger to through the years, even dating back to official sets for 2002’s Spider-Man. But, as familiar as many may be with the idea of merging the two, it still never ceases to capture the imaginations of many and that includes a 14-year-old’s recent endeavor to recreate a trailer for Across The Spider-Verse – all in LEGO.
The creative youngster, Preston Mutanga, shared how he was able to recreate the trailer. His father had showed him the animation software Blender, and as he himself said, he was “instantly hooked on it.” He went on to add that a lot of techniques he wasn’t familiar with was self-taught, thanks to YouTube tutorials and other outlets of that nature.
Once the final product found its way to producers, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, they were floored by what they saw. Before swinging into the Spider-Verse, the duo had worked on 2014’s The Lego Movie, which they said was “inspired by people making films with LEGO bricks at home.” The animation for the movie and the recreated trailer are very similar, but looking past that, the inspiration for The Lego Movie swings things back around full circle with Mutanga’s creative recreation.
Lord and Miller were so impressed by his hard work, that they had him animate the LEGO sequence in the newest blockbuster with the wall crawlers. He worked with the team remotely out of his homestead in Toronto, and would meet every few weeks with the team to run over the progress. “One new thing I learned was definitely the feedback aspect of it, like how much stuff actually gets changed from the beginning to the final product,” Mutanga noted.
The final product of the aspiring animators work is nothing short of impressive, and can be seen in Across The Spider-Verse, playing in theaters now. But before swinging to the cinema, be sure to check out the original recreated trailer that garnered so much attention, linked below.
I recreated the entire Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse trailer in LEGO! @philiplord @chrizmillr @terry12539 @LEGO_Group @SpiderVerse #LEGO #SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse #animation #Blender3d pic.twitter.com/kYY19go7Fc
— LegoMe_TheOG (@FG_Artist) January 3, 2023