Great News Just Dropped For Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 2
The web-slinger is about to swing back into action.
No, not that web-slinger — the other web-slinger. The one named Miles Morales. The one who famously teamed up with multi-verse pals Peter B. Parker, Gwen Stacy, Spider-Ham, Peni Parker, and Spider-Man Noir for the 2018 animated blockbuster Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Don't misunderstand — the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Spider-Man will soon be back in action as well, and we can't wait to see what's in store Tom Holland's Peter Parker in that upcoming trilogy-capper. But for now, it seems Sony is set to beat the MCU to the punch: The highly-anticipated sequel to the studio's Best Animated Feature Oscar-winner has officially begun production.
That exciting news first broke via Twitter, when Into the Spider-Verse lead animator Nick Kondo posted a hype-worthy animated Spider-Man graphic to his feed, teasing the film's 2022 release date. Kondo's tweet was accompanied by the words, "First day on the job!" — signaling that production on the yet-untitled Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sequel was indeed under way.
News of the Spider-Verse sequel is hardly a surprise to fans of the original film, as the follow-up was announced somewhere between it raking in nearly $400 million at the worldwide box-office and netting a well-earned Academy Award. In case you still haven't seen Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the film follows the young teen Miles, who — in the wake of Peter Parker's death and after undergoing a similar biological transformation — takes up the mantle of Spider-Man and tries to carry on the hero's fight against evil. He does so with a little help from his multi-verse counterparts.
Like pretty much every other film production on the planet, the upcoming sequel to Into the Spider-Verse did indeed face delays due to concerns over COVID-19. But it appears producers and key crew members for the sequel are now back at work, and hoping to ensure their Spider-flick swings into theaters on schedule.
Spider-Gwen will reportedly be playing a much bigger role in the Spider-Verse sequel
The release date for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2 is still tentatively set for April 22, 2022. The Sony Pictures team has so far remained tight-lipped about the plot of the film, but it's presumed Into the Spider-Verse 2 will pick up more or less in the immediate aftermath of the original and find the street-smart Miles stepping further into the role of superhero than ever before. We can only imagine the sequel will also expand on the original's mind-boggling visuals, which many believe helped make it the truest transition from page to screen in the history of comic book cinema.
It's presumed as well that the Into the Spider-Verse sequel will feature at least cameo appearances from Miles' Spider-Verse compatriots — voiced by the likes of Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Nicolas Cage, John Mulaney, and Kimiko Glenn — and the likely appearance of new multi-verse teammates (Oscar Isaac's Miguel O'Hara, aka Spider-Man 2099, among them).
The one thing we know for certain is that the new film will seek to beef up the role of Steinfeld's Gwen Stacy, otherwise known as Spider-Gwen. That news came from the mouth of Sony executive Amy Pascal, who confirmed in a 2018 Vanity Fair interview that the Spider-Verse sequel will indeed be focused on the relationship between Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales, and will explore the burgeoning romance between them.
How exactly that heroic duo will come together in the sequel remains to be seen, as the final moments of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse made clear that inter-dimensional travel may be difficult moving forward. But we still have utmost faith the film's creative team will find a clever way to make it work, and make Into the Spider-Verse 2 a worthy sequel.