According to reports, the trilogy-closing film Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse might not make its March 2024 release slot.
This summer’s Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse has been another impressive success for Sony’s animated series, no matter what metric you use. The sequel certainly holds up in terms of quality, even when compared to its mighty predecessor. What’s more, with $560m in the bank so far it has eclipsed the box office haul of the first film by some way and it isn’t done yet. (Our review is here, by the way.)
Plans were in place for the final film in the trilogy to arrive in March of 2024 and there’s already a fair degree of excitement for Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse. (Surely I can’t be the only one wondering what lies ‘beyond’ an endless multiverse of Spidey-populated universes, can I?)
However, a new report that has emerged over at Vulture has thrown the next movie’s March release date into question, also casting into sharp relief some of the work practices on the production which four former employees (speaking under pseudonyms) have called ‘unsustainable.’ It should be said that Sony has responded to the claims, denying them, but the piece (which you can find here) makes the process sound extraordinarily difficult.
In terms of the third film, it was kind of assumed (by this writer at least) that production was underway on both films at the same time but that doesn’t appear to be the case, with one insider claiming that production on Beyond hasn’t yet begun and lots of animators are burned out from making Across The Spider-Verse (which was delayed six months, if you recall). If that’s the case, attempting to get an entire film animated between now and March seems unworkable, for a whole number of reasons, not least the well being of the team creating it.
As for official word, the potential delay was put to the film’s producers, Phil Lord and Chris Miller by ComicBook.com and the duo had this to say: “I would say that just like we’re going to take the time necessary to make Beyond The Spider-Verse great,” Lord said before Miller concluded their answer. “And we won’t back into a release date that doesn’t fit.”
That doesn’t sound like a denial and many will read into it that Beyond The Spider-Verse will be getting delayed but until we hear official confirmation, it remains as speculation. Hopefully, the animation team behind the film will get the time and space they need to complete the film to the high standard they’ll be aiming for, and at a pace which isn’t detrimental to them. We can wait.
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