Beyond the Spider-Verse’ Announces New Directors

Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse has two new directors — who are both old Spider-Verse directors.

Sony announced today that the third film in the animated Spider-Verse trilogy will be helmed by Bob Persichetti and Justin K. Thompson. Persichetti was one of the directors of Into the Spider-Verse while Thompson was a co-director of Across the Spider-Verse. Both also worked on the earlier films in other roles; Thompson was the Production Designer on Into the Spider-Verse, while Persichetti was an executive producer on Across the Spider-Verse.

Sony announced the move on the Spider-Verse Instagram account.

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While it’s good to get any news of progress on Beyond the Spider-Verse, this announcement certainly makes it seem like the film is still quite a ways from being completed. Across and Beyond the Spider-Verse were initially announced as a two-part film that would be developed together and then released in close proximity.

Instead, Across the Spider-Verse (a really great Spider-Man movie!) came out in May of 2023, and we’re now in late 2024 and we’ve only just learned that Beyond the Spider-Verse will be directed by a new team instead of Thompson, Kemp Powers, and Joaquim Dos Santos, who directed the second film together. (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who’ve produced both previous Spider-Verse movies, remain involved as writers and producers.)

Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse has not had an official release date since Sony pushed the film back from its initially planned debut in May of 2024. Of course, from a fan’s perspective, I would rather the movie be later and good than rushed and bad. Hopefully the final product is worth the wait.