If you ask us, the Spider-Verse franchise has been one of the animation industry's biggest success stories in the last decade. For one, the two films released so far have had very successful runs at the box office, with the latest installment recently crossing the $500-million mark. More important to us, however, is the impact the franchise's style has had on the animation industry.
The first film in the franchise Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, putting a refreshing spin on animated films and introduced something both old and new into the industry. The film merged psychedelia, street art, and decades-old comic art technique into one.
The franchise's second entry Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which arrived in theaters earlier this month, continued that trend.
We expect a third and final installment to swing in next March per Sony's announcement. However, one of the animators that worked on Across the Spider-Verse thinks it is a pipe dream.
Speaking to Vulture, the animator stated that, despite Sony's announcement, "There's no way that movie's coming out then [next March]."
When Sony announced there is a third installment on the way and that it would arrive shortly after Into the Spider-Verse, many people assumed the studio was working on both projects simultaneously since it would be nigh impossible to make a full animation film from scratch within such a short period.
The animator, who spoke to Vulture under a pseudonym, debunked this belief. He stated that even though the project has gone through the pre-production phase, there is little to no progress on the production side.
He added that "Everyone's been fully focused on Across the Spider-Verse and barely crossing the finish line."
Apart from casting doubt on Beyond the Spider-Verse's release date, the Vulture interview also revealed that work on Across the Spider-Verse was grueling. Apparently, the world that Phil Lord and Chris Miller have created, which we all love, is not as appealing to the animators behind it.
According to the people that Vulture spoke to, the primary reason behind this is Lord's leadership style. They claimed that Lord made the filmmaking process unbearable by requesting endless revisions that eventually resulted in 11-hour workdays every day of the week, including weekends.
The same animator who voiced doubts that Beyond the Spider-Verse will arrive next March said, "With Phil Lord, nothing is ever final or approved. Nothing was really set in stone. Nothing was ever done."
Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a problem. But then, Lord made these changes when the animation was presumably completed and not during the writing and storyboarding stages, as is the norm.
According to the source, Lord's meddling is why Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse took so long to finish, as it meant that many animators were rendered idle at some point. In their words, "And the majority of the crew were sitting idle for half a year because Phil was holding up sequences in layout."
If these comments are true, then we have to agree with the assessment that Beyond the Spider-Verse won't move anywhere near theaters next March. Even worse, we doubt it will be ready for release anytime next year.
Given that Sony executives denied the animators' claims of Lord's tasking management style but said nothing about the potential delay, we are tempted to believe the animators' claims, at least on the delay.
By the way, Across the Spider-Verse did something we are not sure any theatrical release has ever done before, which is that there are multiple versions of the film showing across theaters.
