‘Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse’ Names Bob Persichetti and Justin K. Thompson As Directors
Maybe, just maybe we’ll finally get that new release date after a year and a half
The mystery as to why Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse hasn’t announced a new release date more than a year since the end of both strikes may finally have been solved. It’s taken until now to actually name directors of the third film of Sony Pictures Animation’s Spider-Verse trilogy, and they are Bob Persichetti and Justin K. Thompson.
Both friendly neighborhood filmmakers come from each of the previous films in the trilogy. Persichetti was one of the directors on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse from 2018 with Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman, staying on as an executive producer on last year’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Thompson was the production designer on that film, a major part in crafting the franchise’s groundbreaking visual style, after serving in a similar position for the studio’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs films, the first of which was directed by Spider-Verse executive producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who executive produced the second Cloudy film. He then moved up to directing the sequel with Joaquim Dos Santos and Kemp Powers. Persichetti co-wrote the 2016 animated feature The Little Prince, after beginning his career at Walt Disney Animation Studios, working on films such as Tarzan, The Emperor’s New Groove and Treasure Planet, and going onto DreamWorks Animation serving as head of story for Puss in Boots, and as a story artist on Shrek 2 and Monsters vs. Aliens. It is unclear what the time disparity is between when they were actually hired and this public announcement. It comes after Jharrel Jerome, who voices the Miles on Earth-42 that became the Prowler, revealed he hadn’t recorded his lines yet. While it is always going to be “after the strikes”, the expectation that a new release date would have been announced by now certainly came from an implication of soon…ness that had yet to happen and long passed.
“We have had the immense privilege of being part of Miles’ journey from the very beginning, and directing the conclusion to his story is beyond exciting,” said Persichetti and Thompson. “The creativity and care poured into every minute of this project has been truly inspiring. We have crafted what we feel is a very satisfying ending, and we can’t wait for fans to experience it – we’re bringing everything we’ve got!” A specific plot synopsis has not been released yet, but Across left off with Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) stranded in his spider’s home universe where that Miles is a Prowler. It leaves him potentially unable to stop The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) from killing his father Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry), and so Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) gathers ally Spider-People Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson), his daughter Mayday, Spider-Man India Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni), Spider-Punk Hobie Brown (Daniel Kaluuya), Spider-Byte Margo Kess (Amandla Stenberg), Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage), Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn), and Peter Porker aka Spider-Ham (John Mulaney) to rescue him.
Lord, Miller, Amy Pascal and Avi Arad are the film’s returning producers, joined by Jinko Gotoh. Aditya Sood and Christina Steinberg are executive producing while Jessica Berri serves as co-producer. Lord and Miller wrote this finale film’s script with David Callaham, and they said “Bob and Justin’s fingerprints are woven into the DNA of these films, and their passion for Miles’ journey shines through in every frame of his last adventure. There is nothing more rewarding than collaborating with creative partners with bold vision and brilliant execution like Bob and Justin. We are thrilled to work with them once again to create a beautiful and satisfying conclusion to this story.”
Kristine Belson, the President of Sony Pictures Animation added “We’re very happy to officially announce the directorial duo behind the final chapter of the Spider-Verse saga. Bob, Justin, and the entire filmmaking team have been hard at work crafting something truly spectacular, and we’ve been blown away by what we’ve seen so far – there’s more work ahead to bring Miles’ story to a satisfying close and we are confident that they are perfect pair to pull it off.” The first two films in the trilogy were critical and commercial successes for the studio, grossing a combined $1.07 billion at the global box office, with Across becoming the studio’s highest grossing film. Into the Spider-Verse’s Best Animated Feature Oscar in 2019 broke a six-year Disney win streak in the category.
