Into the Spider-Verse: Number 42 Mystery Unveiled

There are few things the global audience can agree on these days, but one of them is that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a great piece of animation.

Its bold experiments with the characters, the visuals, and the genre itself immediately drew the attention of the public — and the animated movie ended up quadrupling its production costs at the box office.

While Into the Spider-Verse has one too many mind-blowing moments and creative decisions, some are more obvious — and attention-drawing — than others.

For example, ever since the animated movie came out, people have been speculating about what the number 42 stands for and why it is present in every major scene.

Both the original comic book and the animated movie feature number 42 in almost every key scene throughout its entire duration. Most eagle-eyed fans didn't fail to notice that, and they started wondering what it could possibly mean.

One of the directors of Into the Spider-Verse, Peter Ramsey, addressed this in his interview with Insider — and finally unveiled the mystery of the number 42.

According to him, it was a reference to a legendary baseball player.

"Forty-two was Jackie Robinson's jersey number for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was a barrier-smashing Black superhero in baseball, and [Miles is a] color-smashing Black superhero in Spider-Man comics," Ramsey explained.

Jackie Robinson was the first Black man to ever play on a Major League Baseball team: he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers as an infielder in 1947 and made history.

Paying tribute to him seems only fitting considering how Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse addresses the topic of diversity and inclusion.

Funnily enough, many fans came up with a completely different explanation for the number 42 in the animated movie prior to the director's intervention.

They thought that it was a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where this number plays a very important role.

Source: Insider