Third “Spider-Verse” Film Gets “Wicked” Lenser

Following the launch of the trailer for the live-action “Spider-Noir” series this morning, and ahead of the release of “Goat” tomorrow, Sony Pictures Animation presidents Kristine Belson and Damien de Froberville have sat down with THR for a feature piece talking about their upcoming slate.

Specifically, a bunch of the conversation surrounded the “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse,” the third film in the animated trilogy, which is currently due out next year.

The second film famously suffered from production issues, with multiple animators leaving as new iterations of scenes from franchise godfathers Phil Lord and Chris Miller kept coming through right up until the end of production.

Crunch times were a real issue on that film, and so changes have been made to the production pipeline to help it along this time – that includes hiring a major cinematographer (the previous films didn’t have one):

“We made some changes to the pipeline to, not avoid — because Chris and Phil are always going to iterate late — but to lessen the amount of iteration on the back end. We brought on a live-action DP, Alice Brooks. She’s been directing camera in a way that we hadn’t done on Spider-Verse before. We’re in animation on Spider-Verse now. Because the directors and Chris and Phil have a chance to iterate so much early on while we’re in story, and truly visualize what it’s going look like by the time those sequences flow into the Imageworks pipeline, there’s way less changes.”

Brooks most recently served as cinematographer on the “Wicked” films, “Tick, Tick… Boom!,” and “In the Heights”.

Asked if the Spider-Punk or Spider-Gwen spinoffs had made any progress, Belson said: “I’m not allowed to say. But we are active on both.”

The pair also don’t have any regrets about “Kpop: Demon Hunters” not going theatrical, as it took time for the film to really hit big on the streamer, something cinemas don’t really allow these days:

“Belson: “You have these check-ins: three days, 10 days, 28 days.”

De Froberbville: “The three-day call was like, ‘Yeah, it’s OK.’ The 10-day call: ‘Yeah, it’s OK. It’s starting to look interesting, especially on the rewatch.’”

Belson: “And then normally you wouldn’t have heard from them again between the 10-day and the 28-day. But then we got a call from Hannah Minghella on day 14 or something. ‘Something is going on here.’ So, it needed time, which you do not get theatrically.”

The pair also indicated a “Kpop” sequel won’t be happening in 2029, as previously rumoured, as it’s expected to take longer.

“Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse” is currently expected to be released on June 18th 2027.