The third film in the Spider-Verse universe, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, was originally set to be released in 2024, a year after the second film was released in theatres.
The first two movies were so highly received by fans and critics, and that added to the fact that the third film was a split decision by the filmmakers once they realized they had too much story to tell in just one sequel was the catalyst to making them pull back and push that third movie until they really had it just right.
Franchise producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller talked to i09 about the setbacks in a recent interview, where they explained:
“At one point it was one movie, but there was too much movie there, so it was separated into two,” Miller said. “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?”
The first two films were so good that fans have come to expect a certain quality of film and story telling, and we are expecting a pretty excellent conclusion. Miller acknowledged that pressure, stating:
“We put the most pressure on ourselves,” Miller said. “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.”
“The main trick is to play free,” Lord added. “And to have the whole team understand that their job is to try stuff. To make mistakes, to see where this could go. And I can report that they’re going hard. It’s so great.”
But, as one might imagine, all that work and pressure are why the movie is taking so long. “Having to take it apart to put it back together again was really, really [the] real thing that made it take longer,” Miller said.
“And then we took a small detour,” Lord added.
That small detour is the epic sci-fi film Project Hail Mary that Lord and Miller directed in between the Spider-Verse films, which comes to theaters on March 20th. Soon that will have come and gone, and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse will be the focus again, which we can all plan to see when it’s released on June 18, 2027.
