Sony has announced the highly-anticipated animated film Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse has been delayed from this year to June 2023. Well before Sony and Marvel's Spider-Man: No Way Home brought the multiverse to life with three Peter Parkers, the former studio introduced the concept to the big screen with a colorful comic book film that blew audiences away. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse debuted in late 2018 and became a critical smash while earning $375.5 million worldwide. A sequel was put into development before the first even debuted.
Originally titled Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part 1), the upcoming film will once again follow the multiversal adventures of Miles Morales (Shameik Moore). Oscar Isaac, Hailee Steinfeld, and Jake Johnson are set to reprise their voice roles from the first movie, while Issa Rae joins the cast as Spider-Woman. Across the Spider-Verse entered production in 2020 and was scheduled for release in April 2022; it later shifted to debut in October of this year. However, that is no longer the case.
Sony has announced that, in addition to dropping the (Part 1) portion of its title, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will now release on June 2, 2023, eight months after it was previously scheduled. Subsequently, its already-greenlit sequel, Across the Spider-Verse Part II will premiere on March 29, 2024. The June date means Spider-Verse 2 is now set to premiere just about a month before one of Sony's live-action Marvel movies, Madame Web, which was just scheduled for July 2023.
It isn't entirely clear why Sony opted to delay Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, but it is likely that it has something to do with production. Though the animating process has been underway for two years, the first film used a very intricate style that takes time to make right. Spider-Verse 2 expands on this by utilizing a different style for each individual universe. It stands to reason, then, that Sony opted to push back the film to give the creative team - which includes directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Towers, and Justin K. Thompson - time to make it perfect. At the same time, the studio just issued several release date adjustments, so perhaps Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse just fell prey to these changes.
Regardless of why it is happening, this delay for Spider-Verse 2 is quite the blow. Had the movie's original release date stuck, audiences would've already gotten to enjoy Miles' latest big screen adventure by this point. The prospect of seeing Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse arrive later this year ignited excitement, but now audiences will have to wait a while longer. This is a movie with some high expectations attached, so perhaps it is for the best that Sony has given it a bit more legroom. Miles deserves nothing but the best for his second cinematic outing, and an extra 8 months in can give him that.
Source: Sony