Splitting Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Gives It Breathing Room

We knew that Sony was going to make a sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and in December 2021, we found out that the film they were making was so big that it needed to be split into two films. At one point, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse had a “part one” and “part two” attached, but they eventually dropped the parts and renamed the third movie to Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. The Direct did an interview with senior character animator Ere Santos, and they went into the movie assuming it was going to be a massive two-and-a-half-hour movie that was going to be “Endgame-esque.”

“[We were asking] ‘Wait, so this is what a two-and-a-half-hour movie?’ This is a really large story that they’re telling. And with all the arcs that they wanted to put in, we were just thinking this was going to be an intense, quick, fast-paced, high-energy movie,” Santos said and continued. “But it would have been good. It would have been like, what they were planning was gonna be like ‘Endgame’-esque stuff. Like it was huge. And what they’re planning is still huge.”

According to Santos, the decision to split Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse into two really gives both films the breathing room they need since this is such a massive and ambitious story.

But then kind of spreading it out and into two gives it that breathing room we all felt that it really needed to kind of go, ‘Okay, what do you what do we need to set up in the second movie? And how can we resolve it in the third movie? Or not?’ I don’t know. We’ll have to see,” explained Santos. “It was a really ambitious movie, and at the beginning, it was insanely ambitious, versus what it is now. It’s still super ambitious, but it was like trying to fit two movies into one essentially. But now things can breathe a little bit more.”

Again, Sony could have easily phoned this sequel in, and it probably would have done just fine at the box office, but the fact that they are willing to go the extra mile really speaks volumes. The first one was a labor of love, and everything we hear about Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse makes it sound like it’s just as much a labor of love.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

Miles Morales returns for the next chapter of the Oscar®-winning Spider-Verse saga, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn’s full-time friendly neighborhood, Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must redefine what it means to be a hero so he can save the people he loves most.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson with a screenplay by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, and David Callaham. It stars Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Jake Johnson, Issa Rae, Daniel Kaluuya, Jason Schwartzman, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez, Greta Lee, Rachel Dratch, Jorma Taccone, Shea Whigham, and Oscar Isaac. It will be released on June 2, 2023.