Beyond the Spiderverse’ Daniel Kaluuya Star Got His Start 18 Years Ago

With Sony’s Spider-Verse trilogy finale indefinitely delayed after its initial March 2024 scheduled release date and the MCU’s Spider-Man 4 still in production, 2025 is shaping up to be a rather Spider-Man-less year. This is particularly devastating for fans of the animated feature, as Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse was a huge success both critically and commercially, managing to match the standard set by its predecessor, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

The Spider-Verse trilogy boasts a cast full of titans of the entertainment industry, its most recent installment including Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya. His performance as Hobie Brown/Spider-Punk was so impactful that despite clocking in at a grand total of five minutes of screen time, there’s a 35-minute analysis of his character on YouTube with 3 million views. Kaluuya is best known for his performances in Get Out, Black Panther, and Judas and the Black Messiah. With a resume like that, it’s hard to remember the (BAFTA) rising star he once was and where exactly he got started.

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Release Date

January 25, 2007

Seasons

7

Daniel Kaluuya’s First Big Role in ‘Skins’

Chances are, if you were a teenager in the late 2000s to early 2010s, you’ve seen the cult classic Skins. Well, did you know that an 18-year-old Daniel Kaluuya appeared in the first series of the show? And not only did he act (as Posh Kenneth), but he also wrote and co-wrote two of the episodes (Season 2, Episode 8 “Jal” and Season 3, Episode 3 Thomas)! According to Kaluuya, “I was only supposed to be in one episode, and I got into more off the back of the readthrough… then I was in the writer’s room more than I was on set.”

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Skins was a controversial drama series not unlike today’s Euphoria wherein teenagers’ daily lives were explored — their struggles at school, in friendships, in romantic relationships, and at home. The show heavily featured drug use, nudity, and sex, not to mention put a spotlight on teens’ mental health struggles at the time. While it made great strides in normalizing such things and was quite ahead of its time in terms of its diverse casting and LGBTQ+ storylines, it has also been criticized for romanticizing dangerous behaviors, eating disorders, and the like. For instance, Skins and Nosferatu star Nicholas Hoult was recently interviewed on Brittany Broski’s The Royal Court. When asked if he had been a parent when Skins was on, if he would let his tween watch it, he answered resoundingly, “Oh no, no. I wouldn’t have let them watch it. They would’ve had to watch it behind my back.”

Skins‘ Posh Kenneth was shown as one of the gang, close friends with Anwar in particular (played, notably, by a young Dev Patel). His character was a rap artist, code-switching between British sociolects so much that it became a running gag throughout the series. After this role, Kaluuya’s star began to rise. He landed the lead in the Black Mirror episode “Fifteen Million Merits,” picked up supporting parts in Kick-Ass 2 and Sicario, and then eventually starred in the Jordan Peele horror hit Get Out.

Where Will Hobie’s Story Go Next in the Spider-Verse Films?

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was hailed as a cinematic masterpiece, and it’s safe to say that Hobie’s character arc was a huge part of that. He was introduced as an anarchist punk Brit, the slick, cool-under-pressure character foil to the gawky, inexperienced Miles. However, he didn’t take himself too seriously, which only added to his charm (and Miles’ jealousy).

Except… he did take himself seriously where it mattered, as he saw Miguel’s Spider society for what it was — a fascistic cult that imprisoned those who didn’t “fit into” the canon/the multiverse. You could argue that casting Kaluuya in itself is a sign that Hobie/Spider-Punk will have a bigger role to play in the sequel. However, with the way the character was received, this would’ve likely ended up happening regardless.

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Last we left Miles in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, he was face-to-face with his evil Prowler doppelgänger on Earth-42. Fortunately, Gwen has already realized that he ended up in the wrong dimension. So, given that Hobie was the one to build the teleportation watch in the first place, it’s likely that he’ll be able to solve this problem. The question is more a matter of how much damage will get done before the Spideys will be able to come to Miles’ rescue.

Hobie: “I don’t believe in teams.”

Miles: “Aren’t you in a band?”

Hobie: “I don’t believe in consistency.”

Skins is now available to stream on Hulu, and Daniel Kaluuya can also be seen in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which is streaming on Netflix.