A lot of Spider-Man news started hitting the interwebs this week, giving fans of the wallcrawler plenty to chew over. For starters, it was confirmed that the anticipated Spider-Man 4 with Tom Holland in the lead finally has a director, as Marvel staple and Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton has hopped aboard the sequel. Over on the TV side of things, Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Man Noir is continuing to bulk up its cast, hiring Brendan Gleeson to play the main villain in the streaming series. And then there was a report that the animated Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse was going to be facing tremendous delays because the bulk of the movie had been scrapped for creative reasons. Except, that one turned out to be false.
Internet speculator Jeff Sneider hid the information behind his paywall, claiming that the third and final installment in the animated Into the Spider-Verse saga would be delayed until 2027 because creatives scrapped most of the film. Sneider may have the date right. Animation takes a very long time, and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse already has faced significant delays. But Oscar-nominated Spider-Verse composer Daniel Pemberton took to social media overnight to push back on Sneider’s reporting, sharing with his followers:
Don’t really ever want to weigh in on this sort of stuff BUT would you ever believe there could sometimes be stuff on the internet that might not always be particularly accurate? Hmmmm…🤔 https://t.co/OfXXZKvledSeptember 10, 2024
If asked to choose which party I’m going to believe, give me the guy who has collaborated with the Spider-Verse team on two movies, and who no doubt has a line in on the creative process happening on the animated Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. It doesn’t change, however, that the movie is facing delays, and none of us know when the movie could be in theaters.
When last we left our main characters, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) had jumped back to an alternate universe where there was no Spider-Man, and Miles instead had fulfilled a different destiny to become The Prowler. Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) was putting together a team of Spider-People to rescue Miles, and Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) was bending reality to keep everything together as best as he could.
For the longest time, I was in the camp of, “Let them take as much time as they need.” The first two Spider-Verse movies rank amongst the best Spider-Man films ever made. The use of the multiverse the demonstrate the reality that anyone can wear the mask is a fresh, inventive way to slide into the very familiar Spider-Man mythology. And the animation employed in the Spider-Verse movies is some of the most eye-popping visuals you will ever see.
But the longer that we wait, the harder it becomes to defend that position. Right now, 2026 seems like a reasonable release date, putting three years between the installments. But what if Sony wants Spider-Man 4 in theaters that year. Will they pack the multiplexes with multiple Spidey adventures, and dare to overcrowd the market? Or are the two features so drastically different, that they wouldn’t necessarily compete in a traditional sense?
I’m glad that we are hearing some details from the creatives involved in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. Even if it took a false shot in the dark to get them to weigh in.
