With the recent revelations on working conditions that visual artists endured while making the acclaimed movies, it may put a strain on the release.
Not only were both Spider-Man films — Into the Spider-verse and Across the Spider-verse — garnering acclaim from both critics and audiences, but Across the Spider-verse would best its predecessor immensely with over $300 million made domestically and crossing $500 million globally. The film would make everyone’s Spidey-sense tingle for the next installment since Across the Spider-verse would end on a cliffhanger. The original plan from Sony is to follow the film up Endgame-style with its second half of the story getting released just a year later. Unfortunately, with all the goings-on with studio politics all over Hollywood, and the CGI artists currently not unionized, harsh working conditions may have caused a delay in the release as some of the animators would walk out on the project.
ComicBook.com reports on comments made by Lord and Miller, as the duo addresses the issues that may delay the project from hitting its Spring 2024 release target. Lord explained, “I would say that just like we’re going to take the time necessary to make Beyond the Spider-Verse great.” Then, Miller added, “And we won’t back into a release date that doesn’t fit.”
The Miles Morales Spider-Man producers added, “They’ve announced that Beyond the Spider-Verse will be released in March of next year. I’ve seen people say, ‘Oh, they probably worked on it at the same time.’ There’s no way that movie’s coming out then. There’s been progress on the pre-production side of things. But as far as the production side goes, the only progress that’s been made on the third one is any exploration or tests that were done before the movie was split into two parts. Everyone’s been fully focused on Across the Spider-Verse and barely crossing the finish line. And now it’s like, Oh, yeah, now we have to do the other one.”
Sony and Pascal claim that the working conditions were not unusual for such a high-profile project. Executive vice-president and general manager of Sony Pictures Imageworks, Michelle Grady explained to Vulture, “It really does happen on every film. Truly, honestly, it can be a little bit frustrating, but we always try to explain that this is the process.” Pascal added that animation has the necessary evil of being ever-changing in development which could be straining for those trying to keep up with revisions. She expounded, “One of the things about animation that makes it such a wonderful thing to work on is that you get to keep going until the story is right. If the story isn’t right, you have to keep going until it is.” Pascal would then conclude her thought with a blunt statement, “I guess, Welcome to making a movie.”
