Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse hired 14-year-old Preston Mutanga from Toronto, Canada as an animator. The hiring decision came after producers Chris Lord and Phil Miller came across Mutanga’s recreated the spidey trailer shot-for-shot with LEGO blocks.

Mutanga uploaded his LEGO remake of the “Across the Spider-Verse” trailer to Twitter on Jan. 2.  Lord and Miller, both active Twitter users, caught wind of the clip and were impressed — the directors know a thing or two about crafting LEGO-inspired sequences as the directors of 2014’s “The LEGO Movie.” When the team decided they wanted a scene in “Across the Spider-Verse” set in a LEGO universe, they decided to reach out to Mutanga, Variety reported.

“We found out that it was a 14-year-old kid who made it, and we were like, ‘This looks incredibly sophisticated for a nonadult, nonprofessional to have made,” Miller told The Times. “It blew us all away, including some of the best animators in the world.”

“The LEGO Movie is inspired by people making films with Lego bricks at home,” Lord added. “That’s what made us want to make the movie. Then the idea in ‘Spider Verse’ is that a hero can come from anywhere. And here comes this heroic young person who’s inspired by the movie that was inspired by people like him.”

Mutanga says his dad introduced him to animation through the software app Blender and also sites YouTube as a tool for his self-teaching.

“This 3D software called Blender, and I instantly got hooked on it. I watched a lot of YouTube videos to teach myself certain stuff,” Mutanga said.

While a part of the Spider-Verse team, Mutanga spent several weeks working remotely on animated LEGO sequences for “Across the Spider-Verse.”

“Every other week, he would meet via video with Miller, who would check on his progress and provide detailed input,” Lord said.

Through the experience, Mutanga soaked in a lot of new animation methods and dealt with the reality of his creations being changed.

“One new thing I learned was definitely the feedback aspect of it, like how much stuff actually gets changed from the beginning to the final product,” Mutanga said.

Mutanga is still enrolled in high school but can put these credits toward a real full-time animator role when he’s ready.

“I adored the first movie and was so hyped for the second one, so getting to work with the people who actually made this masterpiece was honestly like a dream,” he said.

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