Sony has just announced the long-anticipated directors for the Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. Directors Bob Persichetti and Justin K. Thompson have been selected to swing into action to bring this third installment from the Spider-Verse into our reality. Along with their announcement comes word that the film will be delayed.
It has been removed from the 2025 schedule indefinitely. It appears that both Persichetti and Thompson have a target date of 2026 to have writers Dave Callaham, Phil Lord, and Christopher Miller deliver the next chapter in Miles Morales’s and Gwen Stacy’s adventure across the Spider-Verse. Most importantly, we will learn the answers to the Across the Spider-Verse cliffhanger ending.
Beyond The Spider-Verse Announced
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was released in 2023 featuring characters from Marvel Comics Miles Morales. It was the sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse that started the franchise in 2018. Now, branching from going Into the Spider-Verse, and then Across it, Thompson and Persichetti will be showing us what is Beyond.
Both Thompson and Persichetti should be up to the task as they have experience working with this franchise from the start. Persichetti has been part of it from the beginning being part of the directing team of Into the Spider-Verse. His Oscar-winning contribution also earned him a spot working on the sequel as the executive producer for Across the Spider-Verse. Thompson was the art director of Into the Spider-Verse.
Sony Delays on the Film
There have also been rumors that Sony will further delay the release of Beyond The Spider-Verse. The film was due to be released in late 2024 to keep the success of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse going. But the date keeps getting pushed back with the assurance that it is to give the fans what they want. This may also explain why the existing script had been tossed and the date of release may be pushed back even further to 2027 or perhaps later.
The big question is whether Persichetti and Thompson are up to the task and what will they deliver. Persichetti has already given us films that have won him Academy Awards, Annie, BAFTA Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, and more. Thompson has brought us the aforementioned Spider-Man work as well as the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatball films. His ten-year contribution to changing visual development effects to designing in digital animation is cutting edge.
Two Directors For Miles’ Next Adventure
Justin K. Thompson
Thompson has been a director and production designer with Sony Pictures. He also served as the production designer on Sony Pictures Animation’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and its sequel, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. With over 20 years of experience in the animation industry, Thompson has contributed his work to some of the most groundbreaking television programs. Over the past ten years, he has transitioned to visual development and production design on digitally animated feature films.
Thompson also spent five years working with Cartoon Network, bringing his touch to programs like The Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack. He also worked with other networks, bringing the Emmy-winning Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Partnering with Disney and DreamWorks, he has contributed to several projects and Film Roman.
Bob Perschetti
Persichetti seemed to be born an American animator, screenwriter, and director. He has had a hand in the biggest animated hit films of the 21st century. Before he was selected to direct Beyond the Spider-Verse, he worked with Disney on the 1997 Greek hero, Hercules. He stayed with Disney for another five years, bringing us Mulan, Tarzan, Fantastia 2000, The Emperor’s New Groove, and more.
He helped develop and implement CGI and turned to work for Dreamworks Animation. He changed the industry with them with box office busters like Shrek 2, Wallace & Gromit, Flush Away, Puss in Boots, etc.
Then he came onto Sony’s Spider-Man Spider-Verse project before Beyond the Spider-Verse. He took the film’s psychedelic visuals, a combination of computer animation with hand-drawn comic book techniques. These interaction changes set a new precedent for animated movies. Swinging in timely humor anecdotes with some of the best voice acting cast assembled, he wowed the critics, giving excellent reviews and filling the theaters with audiences.
Voices and Background
Now that they are directing the film, the terrific cast of actors for Beyond the Spider-Verse will reprise their voice roles. Shameik Moore as Miles Morales, Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy, Brain Tree Henry as Jefferson Davis, and Nicolas Cage as Spider-Noir.
The movie is set to follow the events of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, where Gwen Stacy is in charge of a strange gang of Spider-Man from across multiple realities fighting against a Spider-Society led by a self-righteous Miguel O’Hara. Both are on the hunt for Miles Morales, who is trapped in an alternate reality from where the radioactive spider who bit him came from.
He finds an alternate version of himself the horrible Prowler. There are more dimensions at stake as Miles faces the darkest version of himself with a countless mob of alternate Spider superpowered variations hunting him, some to save, others to sacrifice. What will Persichetti and Thompson do now?
Sony’s Recent Failure
There is a great deal of pressure since the most recent disaster of Kraven the Hunter’s failed delivery at the box office. Sony’s Kraven has an IMDb rating of 5.5/10 and a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 14%. It has the worst-ever box office opening weekend for Sony of the Spider-Man universe, even falling below Madame Web. Its budget is estimated at $110 million, and its two-week daybed grossed $11 million.
With an unwanted record-low, Sony, Spider-Man fans, and more deserve a win. Beyond the Spider-Verse needs to succeed, or there may not be another chance for Sony to try again. Their failed attempts at the box office have shown a negative reception towards the company’s creative liberties. Their weak superhero films contribute to superhero fatigue and potentially damage the legacy of Marvel movies have left them in an abysmal position that they will fail before they start.
