If you somehow thought that Sony Pictures would let their Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning animated Spider-Man film go quietly into that good night, think again. The company tweeted out an announcement officially confirming that the highly anticipated sequel to “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse” will swing into theaters on April 8, 2022.
The date was revealed on a brief Twitter clip featuring the Miles Morales’ graffitied Spider-Man logo in numerous art styles with the year “2022” flashing in the middle of it.
A follow-up to this critically-acclaimed and award-winning animated film was not only to be expected, but was announced a year ago even before the film’s premiere. However, the news of trouble with Sony and Disney’s live-action Spider-Man movie earlier this year made a sequel starring Miles Morales all the more important to the future of Sony’s arachnid franchise. In addition to a sequel starring Miles and all the Spider-people, it was previously announced that a spinoff focusing on Spider-Gwen and other female Spider-characters was also in the works. While we don’t know exactly which film will premiere in 2022, it is likely that this project will focus on Miles.
Of course, the big question is which Spider-characters will join the sequel. The original introduced us to a middle-aged Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy as Spider-Gwen, a literal pig going by the name Spider-Ham, Asian-American Peni Parker and of course Nicolas Cage as the black-and-white Spider Noir. Here’s hoping the sequel will give us Spider-Man from the Japanese TV show (who owns a giant robot) or Spiders-Man (a literal pile of spiders that believe they’re a human).
Deadline reports that “Into the Spider-Verse” producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller will return to produce the sequel, while Variety states that Joaquin Dos Santos (Voltron: Legendary Defender, Avatar: The Last Airbender) is set to direct the script by Dave Callaham (Wonder Woman 1984, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings).