Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse is changing the game of the Sony Pictures Animation trilogy by throwing out the "rulebook" of its predecessors. Fans have already been waiting three years for Spider-Verse 3 after the last movie amassed almost unanimously positive reactions and closed out on an epic cliffhanger. Of course, after two highly praised epics, the pressure is on to stick the landing and close out what could become the greatest superhero trilogy of all time when it swings into theaters around the world on June 18, 2027.
Beyond the Spider-Verse writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller took to the stage at CinemaCon to promote the Summer 2027 threequel and unveil an exclusive trailer to attendees. Addressing the convention's select attendees, the duo promised that Spider-Verse 3 will outdo what has come before.
During development on Spider-Verse 3, Lord and Miller also directed Project Hail Mary, and even handled post-production just "next door" to Sony Pictures Animation to remain hands-on in creating the franchise's "most emotional" yet:
Miller: “What you might not know is we built out the entire post-production of 'Project Hail Mary' next door to Sony Animation and the editorial suite for 'Beyond the Spider-Verse,' so that we could help [directors Bob Persichetti and Justin K. Thompson] deliver the most emotional Spider-Verse film we have ever made.”
While hyping up the "unbelievable team" behind Spider-Verse 3, Lord noted that the Sony Pictures Animation team is equally all about "pushing boundaries:"
Lord: “We have an unbelievable team of designers, story artists, animators, technical innovators that will also make this the most spectacular 'Spider-Verse' film ever. This is a group so talented, it is the Travelling Wilburys of animation. On top of that, we have the support of the incredible Sony Animation team, all of whom are about pushing boundaries. They have made that their superpower.”
Lord and Miller boldly declared that Beyond the Spider-Verse will be vastly different from what fans have seen before, saying that "there's no rulebook" and that the threequel will go "places that we literally could not have before:"
Miller: “And people come to these movies to experience something they have never seen.”
Lord: “So, we threw out the rulebook and wrote our own to make the first movie.”
Miller: “And then, we threw that out to make the second.”
Lord: “And now, there’s no rulebook. So, we are going places that we literally could not have gone before.”
The acclaimed filmmakers' promise to abandon any sense of a "rulebook" is a clear declaration that Beyond the Spider-Verse will disregard the last two movies' winning formula altogether in the hopes of making the 2027 flick so "emotional."
Beyond the Spider-Verse Will Be Very Different In 5 Key Ways
No Time Jump This Time
While there were almost five years between Into and Across the Spider-Verse in the real world, Miles Morales' heroic career skipped forward just over a year. This time around, there will be no such time jump, as Beyond the Spider-Verse is picking up just moments after the last movie's twist cliffhanger.
However, Beyond is expected to play with the timeline a little, given that footage shown exclusively to CinemaCon attendees revealed a peek at a younger Aaron and Jefferson Davis, pointing toward flashback or time travel scenes.
New Cinematography Techniques
Spider-Verse 3 is being crafted differently behind the scenes, as Sony Pictures Animation co-president Damien de Froberville told The Hollywood Reporter.
He explained that they "made some changes to the pipeline," including bringing in Alice Brooks, a live-action cinematographer, to craft visuals early on during story development so that "way less changes" are required later in production.
Gwen Variants
Producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller were asked in June 2023 whether fans would finally see Gwen Stacy Variants in Beyond the Spider-Verse. After all, moviegoers have already been introduced to multiple Peter Parkers and met their second Miles Morales in Across' dramatic cliffhanger, but there is still only one Gwen.
While the duo was clear to ScreenRant that storylines can "evolve," and three years have gone by, they noted that, at that time, there was a Gwen Variant in Beyond's script. They gave some vague teases for her role, hinting that she is "based on" something and is "plot-integral" to our familiar Gwen's arc.
Bringing Together Two Spider-Verse Casts
Sony Pictures has assembled a massive cast of heroes and villains for Beyond the Spider-Verse, which seems to include almost everybody of note from the last two movies, even those who sat out the sequel, like Kingpin and Tombstone.
By the end of Across the Spider-Verse, Gwen Stacy was uniting some old friends from the previous movie, including those who mostly sat out the flick, such as Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Ham. Effectively, Beyond the Spider-Verse is expected to unite two whole casts for the trilogy's biggest chapter yet.
Concluding the Narrative
While Into and Across the Spider-Verse, to vastly different degrees, spent time laying the groundwork for the next chapter, Beyond will have no such duty, as the trilogy-capper will officially conclude Miles Morales' story for good.
That's not to say that everything will be tied up in a neat bow, since Sony is already developing multiple Spider-Verse spin-offs, including movies for Spider-Woman, Spider-Punk, and possibly Venom (although the latter project may be standalone).
