Daniel Kaluuya was asked to drop British slang into his dialogue for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

In the animated superhero sequel, the Get Out actor voices Hobie Brown, also known as Spider-Punk, a Cockney variation of Spider-Man with a punk rock look.

Speaking to GamesRadar+, the London native revealed that co-directors Kemp Powers, Joaquim Dos Santos, and Justin K. Thompson gave him the freedom to infuse authentic local slang into his character’s dialogue.

“They sat me down and were like, ‘We want you, so we want you to bring you to it.’ They asked me, ‘What would you say here, what is the real word that would be used here’, giving me free rein and allowing me to use my background in improv,” he shared.

As a result, Hobie can be seen saying, “I don’t have a Scooby-Doo” during the film, with a comic book-style caption appearing onscreen to explain to international viewers that the character “doesn’t have a clue”.

As the sequel marks Hobie’s debut onscreen, Kaluuya had a blank state when it came to finding the character’s voice.

“We were exploring the voice as there hasn’t been a narrative version of Spider-Punk before in film or television. So, it was a discovery, and we found something that was a melting pot of all that London is but also the attitude that someone who was a punk or from Camden would have, without being watered down or becoming too commercial,” he explained.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, also featuring the voices of Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld, is in cinemas now.

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