Spider-Man may be one of the most popular superheroes in the world, but not even he is immune to the dreaded evil known as release date delays. Sony announced today that they’re pushing back their next Spidey film, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Across the Spider-Verse is the sequel to Sony’s Oscar-winning 2018 animated movie Into the Spider-Verse, which saw Miles Morales take up the wall-crawling mantle in one of the best superhero movies to come out in recent memory. In many ways it was the precursor to last year’s blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home; Myles teams up with various Spider-Men and Women from across the multiverse to battle a cadre of villains.
Interestingly, Sony has also dropped “Part One” from the end of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. As it stands, this is still the first of a two-part Across the Spider-Verse sequence of movies, but I guess the studio decided Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part One just didn’t roll off the tongue.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse delayed into next year
Per Variety, Across the Spider-Verse was originally slated to release on October 2022, but it has now been pushed back eight months to June 2, 2023. The sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part II, also received an official release date of March 29, 2024.
This delay comes less than a month after Morbius, the lastest of Sony’s Spider-Man-adjacent villain films, came out to very mixed reviews. Despite that, the film did decently at the box office. Morbius was delayed a grand total of six times throughout the course of the pandemic until it finally came out on April 1.
Across the Spider-Verse is unlikely to face anywhere near as many delays, both because movie theaters are slightly safer now than they were a year ago and because Sony is likely considering this to be one of their bigger upcoming releases. Spider-Man films have had their ups and downs over the years, but most fans agree that Into the Spider-Verse was just plain awesome.
Hopefully this delay will only mean more time for the team behind the film to make it even better. There’s a lot of anticipation surrounding this one, and we can only hope the sequel delivers on the promise of the first film.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will feature the return of Shameik Moore as Miles Morales and Hailee Steinfeld as Spider-Gwen, as well as Oscar Isaac as Spider-Man 2099. The film debuts in theaters on June 2, 2023. We hope.
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h/t The A.V. Club, Variety