Heroes. They come in all shapes and sizes, and serve so many different purposes. Lately, thanks to his involvement in the animated Spider-Verse saga, New Girl’s Jake Johnson finds himself rising to the challenge of Spider-Man’s heroics. That’s what happens when you star in two of the greatest Spider-Man movies ever made. Fans respond in kind, and sometimes turn to you for help. Now, Johnson is an actor. A voice actor. And even a director. His new film Self-Reliance is one of the better upcoming 2024 movies we have seen. And while having a conversation with Johnson about his directorial debut and his career, he opened up about something spectacular he did for the Spider-Man fan base, and a surprise he got through the interactions.
Jake Johnson’s version of Spider-Man in the two animated films, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, is Peter B. Parker, a version of the classic hero who exists on Earth 616. He served as a mentor for Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), and appears to be part of the team who will come to Miles’ rescue, based on the ending of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. So Johnson’s legacy will be tied to Spider-Man for the rest of his career, which he learned when the world went through a global pandemic. While appearing on the ReelBlend podcast to discuss Self-Reliance, Johnson spoke about an action he did for Spidey fans during the pandemic, and explained:
When it first hit, I started doing these Peter Parker things where I would send voice notes out to kids as Peter Parker. And it started off as like a little nothing kind of fun thing I did where I just posted something on social media. Like, ‘If your kids are spooked, send an email here and I'll say, as Peter Parker, that it's going to be fine.’ And I truly… it was late at night, and I was scared about the pandemic, and my kids were young and asking questions that were getting spooky. And the amount of responses were probably over a hundred thousand in a day. And I needed to get UTA to help distribute.
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This doesn’t surprise me. Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Ellen Degeneres and many more have told stories about recording messages for young fans while in character as Woody, Buzz or Dory. So it’s very cool that Jake Johnson agreed to do that for young Spider-Man fans. But then he got hit with a massive surprise, and it breaks my heart a little. As Johnson went on to explain:
But what really hit me was how sad a lot of the emails were, and how scared everybody was. And how it would be adults being like, ‘Hey man, I know you said kids. But I'm 47. I live alone. I'm by myself. I'm terrified. I'm not an idiot. I know Peter Parker's not real. If you don't mind, could you say that like, to Steve, ‘It's gonna be okay.’ It was amazing. And I thought, ‘Yeah, like that's really cool.’ It's one of the reasons why I love the franchise so much, where you're like, ‘Oh, that's really neat. You're using a fictional thing to just help you get through a hard moment. And it doesn't matter if you're eight or 60, that's fucking awesome.’
I wish I knew that Jake Johnson was doing that for Spider-Man fans of all ages. I definitely would have hit him up, Cameo-style, so that I’d always have my own recording of Peter Parker telling me that everything is going to be OK. I could play it during tough times. Spider-Man’s voice can help get me through, the way that he did for kids and grown fans.
We still don’t know when the third chapter of the Spider-Verse trilogy is due to arrive. During the ReelBlend interview, Jake Johnson admitted to us that he has yet to record any dialogue for the sequel, but also said that means nothing, as vocal parts can come together quickly. So stay tuned here for any updates on Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, and also, keep an eye on Johnson’s socials, in case he opens up the window to personalized messages again.
