Back in December 2022, Preston Mutanga combined two of his biggest interests by recreating the first trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse shot-for-shot using LEGO blocks and figures. Once the ambitious project was done, the 14-year-old uploaded the clip online and caught the attention of the film’s producers, who would go on to hire him as an animator for a scene set in a LEGO universe.
In an interview with The New York Times, producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (both of whom directed The LEGO Movie) said they reached out to him after deciding to include a LEGO sequence in Across the Spider-Verse.
“We found out that it was a 14-year-old kid who made it and we were like, ‘This looks incredibly sophisticated for a nonadult, nonprofessional to have made,'” Miller told The Times. “It blew us all away, including some of the best animators in the world.”
Mutanga’s work was already so polished because he had spent years making short LEGO videos and uploading them to his YouTube channel after being introduced to the 3D computer software Blender by his father, Theodore Mutanga.
When another of the film’s producers, Christina Steinberg, contacted Mutanga’s parents, Theodore and Gisele Mutanga, they were understandably skeptical at first. Once they confirmed the offer was legit, however, Theodore sprung into action and built his son a new computer with a powerful graphics card in order to render his work as fast as possible.
Still in high school like Across the Spider-Verse protagonist Miles Morales, the Toronto-based teenager worked remotely on his scene during his off-time and checked in with Miller bi-weekly. “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 said about the experience.
With a contribution to one of the year’s best films under his belt, Mutanga is well on his way to achieving his goal of becoming a full-time animator and director. Watch his LEGO recreations of both trailers below.
Across the Spider-Verse is the second movie in a planned trilogy and has already raked in more than $235 million at the box office worldwide after a $120 million opening weekend. In our review, Senior Entertainment Editor Liz Shannon Miller called it a “stunning spectacle that also still manages to tell a smart, character-driven story about fate, friendship, and the cost of being a hero.”
looks like I can officially confirm it now-
yes, I animated a part for #AcrossTheSpiderVerse! it was honestly such an amazing journey and working with @philiplord, @chrizmillr, @CSteinberg9, and the rest of the spider-verse team was a dream come true. you guys absolutely ROCK pic.twitter.com/QnSZrcOf99
Advertisement— LegoMe_TheOG (@FG_Artist) June 7, 2023
