The release of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 2 is delayed, with Sony pushing its release date back another five months. Movie release date delays are all the rage at the moment as every studio rushes to reorganize their upcoming slate in accordance with the ever-changing situation that is the COVID-19 pandemic. Movie theaters remain closed and the plans to re-open them haven't yet been finalized, leaving studios in a pinch as they sort out how and when to release their movies.
The early adopters of the release date shuffle were likes of the new James Bond film, No Time To Die, and the highly-anticipated F9. Since then, though, just about every movie set to release this summer has bumped its date to later in the year. The only hold out is Christopher Nolan's Tenet, but with its July 17 date, the movie sits right on the cusp of when some believe movie theaters will begin reopening. Honestly, it's too early to say, but this reshuffling of dates has also resulted in movies scheduled one or two years out to even get pushed back. This has been the case with much of the MCU as almost every one of Phase 4's movies has had its release date shifted. It's no different on the animated side of things, either, seeing as the Spider-Verse sequel is now also being delayed.
In the announcement of Sony's changed release date schedule comes the news of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 2's delay. Per the studio, the Spider-Verse sequel is moving back five months from the original April 2022 date to October 7, 2022. Interestingly, this date had been previously held by an as-of-yet unannounced MCU movie, but in the recent rescheduling, it's unclear if Marvel is holding on to the date. With the Spider-Verse sequel now set to come out in October 2022, it's seem unlikely, and whatever Marvel had planned to release then is sure to also get moved.
In addition to Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 2, Sony also has plans for a Spider-Verse spinoff focusing on Spider-Gwen and introducing more female Spider-characters, like Jessica Drew aka Spider-Woman or May Parker aka Spider-Girl. As the whole point of the first Spider-Verse movie was to introduce a multiverse of potential Spider-men and women, the characters available to introduce in a sequel or spinoff are almost limitless. Already, it's expected that Spider-Man 2099 will appear in the Spider-Verse sequel thanks to his post-credits cameo, and more recently, Spider-Verse producer Phil Lord hinted a character as zany as the Japanese Spider-Man could show up. So while this delay to Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 2's release is a bummer, there's little doubt the sequel will be worth the wait.
Source: Sony