One of the best animated films of all time is Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. When it was released in 2018, it was instantly met with near universal acclaim from audiences and critics alike, scoring a 97% approval rating from the critics and 93% from general audiences on the critic site, Rotten Tomatoes, and garnered a win for Best Animated Feature at both the Golden Globes and the Oscars. To top it off, it made over $375 million worldwide. Suffice to say, the film was a smash hit in every possible way. It did miss out on a Best Picture nomination, but, you know, Oscars gotta Oscar. Genre bias strikes again. In any case, a sequel was all but guaranteed, and not just because of the cliffhanger ending.

One of the best parts of the film was seeing several different Spider-people, all fighting together, most of whom audiences hadn't experienced before. The highlights were easily Nicholas Cage as Spider-Noir and John Mulaney as Peter Porker, though we were also treated to Spider-Gwen, anime-inspired Peni Parker, who drives her own spider-mech, and an aging, jaded, out-of-shape version of the main Spider-Man, Peter B. Parker. With the great lineup of characters that we got in the original film, it was obvious that the sequel would promise more wall-crawlers for us to enjoy. We already know that one of them has been designed.

Between 1978 and 1979, 41 episodes of a Spider-Man TV show were produced in Japan. It was, to put it mildly, loosely based on the Spider-Man that everybody is familiar with. Instead of a high school student bitten by a radioactive spider, we instead have a 22-year-old motocross racer named Takuya Yamashiro, who is injected with "Spider Extract" which gives him the usual Spider-Man powers. Instead of fighting villains such as the Green Goblin or Doctor Octopus, his main antagonists are an evil group called the Iron Cross Army. To top it all off, he has a 200 foot robot called Leopardon that helps him fight the bad guys. I couldn't make this up even if I wanted to.

The similarities between this version and the Spider-Man we all know and love are obviously few and far between, but the series does have something of a small cult following, and it's easy to see why. It looks completely insane in all of the best ways. Takuya Yamashiro is popular enough that fans have been hoping for an appearance from him in the Spider-Verse sequel. Well, those fans won't be disappointed.

One such fan on Twitter asked Phil Lord, one of the creative minds behind the film, if this version of Spider-Man will be in the sequel, offering to design the character if nothing had been done yet. Phil Lord replied with two simple words; "He's designed!" Rad.

Dear @philiplord, @chrizmillr, @JDS_247 and @shinypinkbottle,

Now that you’ve announced Spidey 2, IF, through some miracle of miracles, Japanese Spider-Man is written into the film, I will happily design him for you.

Sincerely,

Shannon pic.twitter.com/2jd7FfPr7Z
— Shannon Tindle (@ShannonTindle_1) November 5, 2019

Now, just because a character has been designed, doesn't mean that he will make an appearance in the film. It is possible that he'll be limited to the planning stages and ultimately doesn't make the cut, or is in some deleted scene. Beyond that, it's highly unlikely that he'll be added to the already large lineup of wall crawlers we follow throughout the film. If Yamashiro is in the film, he'll likely make a brief cameo appearance, such as the ones made by Spider-Man 2099 and the 1960s animated version. They would balance the core cast pretty well. Adding more might overload the viewers and make it hard for us to connect with all of them.