Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller have provided an update on the hotly anticipated Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, insisting it remains “on schedule” for its 2027 release date.
The much-delayed Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse currently has a June 18, 2027 release date. If the animated movie does hit that date, it’ll arrive four years after 2023’s Across the Spider-Verse, and eight years after 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse came out.
Speaking to Variety, Lord and Miller said Beyond the Spider-Verse is on track to hit that release date, calling the movie the “most emotional” film in the trilogy.
“It’s on schedule and it’s going to be beautiful and emotional,” Lord said. “I would say the most emotional of the three,” Miller added.
Miller went on to talk about the new ways Spot is being animated, which means the things the supervillain is able to do in Beyond the Spider-Verse are “extra amazing.”
Warning! Spoilers for the Spider-Verse movies follow:
Dr. Johnathon Ohnn, aka the Spot, is the main antagonist of the Spider-Verse movies. The former Alchemax scientist was transformed into a portal-creating supervillain when Miles Morales destroyed Kingpin’s Super-Collider. Spot is really, really angry at Miles, who he blames for ruining his life. And at the end of Across the Spider-Verse, after becoming incredibly powerful, he sets out to murder Miles’ father, Jefferson Davis.
Spot steals pretty much every scene he’s in, with his wonderfully animated portal power fuelling increasingly elaborate, mind-bending action scenes. “… there are some new things they’re developing for the look… of what Spot does specifically that are extra amazing,” Miller said, teasing even more Spot mayhem.
“They’re really extraordinary. They’re going to be great,” Lord said, adding: “… artistically… It’s going to take you to places of abstraction that I think are going to be really special.”
Last month, Lord and Miller explained why Beyond the Spider-Verse was taking so long. They said that a lot of the delay had to do with the pressure they put on themselves to outdo the previous two movies, which enjoyed critical and commercial acclaim, and the sheer amount of work required to come up with something that would do just that. Then there were issues that came with the decision to split the sequel in two, and subsequently having to piece it back together to create not just a coherent trilogy, but coherent individual movies.
“At one point it was one movie, but there was too much movie there, so it was separated into two,” Miller told io9. “But then once you looked at that second half of a movie, you’re like, ‘Well, that’s like not just a story arc that has a beginning, middle, and end.”
“We know where it’s headed, but we need to understand better what’s happening in the middle,” Lord added. “And we came upon a really wonderful notion, which is when your family is broken apart by your calling, your talents, how do you put them back together? How do you have it all?”
“We put the most pressure on ourselves,” Miller went on to say. “There’s no one that puts more pressure on us than ourselves, wanting to outdo ourselves each time and see things that you haven’t seen before and make it feel like something you’ve never experienced before. And so, trying to get something that is as worthy as the previous two has been the driver.”
“Having to take it apart to put it back together again was really, really [the] real thing that made it take longer,” Miller said.
As it stands, Beyond the Spider-Verse is a little over a year away. So what can we expect? Daniel Kaluuya, who played Hobart “Hobie” Brown / Spider-Punk in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, is set to play the same character in Beyond the Spider-Verse (he’s also set to reprise the role in a Spider-Punk animated spinoff).
Marvin Jones III, who voices supervillain Tombstone in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, is also set to reprise his role for Beyond the Spider-Verse. (He’ll play a live-action version of the character in this year’s MCU movie Spider-Man: Brand New Day, too.)
Last year, Sony released the first photos of Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse during its CinemaCon presentation. Check them out in the gallery below.
Footage screened for attendees began with a voiceover from Miles: “You can’t ask me… not to save my father.” The footage then pulled back through trippy sky colors and images from the last movie with dialogue excerpts. Miles was seen fighting his evil self and walking into a dark tunnel with others behind him. Then his line from the last movie — “Imma do my own thing” — was heard before confirmation of what was then a June 4, 2027 release date.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
