In Spider-Man 2, players are tasked with tracking down dozens of Spider-Bots, all of which are themed after various wall-crawling superheroes (and a handful of supervillains).
The energy reading they give off resembles what we've seen in the Spider-Verse movies and, when you collect them all, you finally track down the mysterious figure who has also been searching for the cute little robots: Delilah.
Wait, who?
An obscure assassin from the comic books who has only gone toe-to-toe with Spider-Man on a handful of occasions, you'd be forgiven for wondering why she appears at the other end of a Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse-style portal. She name-drops "Miguel" (a.k.a. Spider-Man 2099) and then vanishes, leaving Peter Parker/Miles Morales thoroughly confused.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Delilah was supposed to appear in the animated sequel, serving as the bartender at an interdimensional version of the Bar with No Name which The Spot would have later destroyed.
It's a shame that scene was left on the cutting room floor as it robs this moment of the impact it might have otherwise had.
Talking to the site, Spider-Man 2's Senior Creative Director Bryan Intihar said they worked closely with Sony Animation to include this moment and to get their version of Spidey into Across the Spider-Verse.
"'They're all going to be themed around all these different spiders and these different characters.' That's very Spider-Verse," Intihar says, remembering how he pitched the crossover. "'Could we have a connection?'"
"Our goal with Spider-Man 2 was to inject as much narrative as we could into some of the optional activities, even a collectible like a Spider-Bot," he continues. "If we could have good narrative payoff at the end, that this is somehow tied to Spider-Verse, it would be the cherry on top of the experience."
Talking of crossovers, Intihar would go on to confirm that Insomniac's upcoming Wolverine game also takes place on Earth-1048, the same world as Spider-Man. That's why we got a fun nod to the clawed mutant with an unlockable suit for Miles.
"For us, the most important thing right now is to make sure that game doesn't have to talk about the Spider-Verse in our games, making sure there's no obstacles or roadblocks they have to think extra about," he notes. "We just want to support them so that they can make the best Wolverine game possible. The things I've seen, they're well on their way. I'm very excited to see how that comes out."
Spider-Man 2 is now available. Wolverine doesn't currently have a confirmed release date.