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New Directing Trio to Tackle SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE Sequel

Photo from Sony Animation Pictures Instagram

New Directing Trio to Tackle SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE Sequel

By Movieguide® Staff

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE sequel will now be directed by trio Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson. 

Sony Pictures Animation’s first SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE took home an Oscar win and was honored at the 2018 Movieguide® Awards as one of the Best Movies for Families. 

Returning to the project are producers Phil Lord, Chris Miller, Amy Pascal, Avi Arad, and Christina Steinberg. The director of the first movie, Peter Ramsey, is back as executive producer alongside Aditya Sood.

“The crew behind the ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ set such a ridiculously high bar, and we’re humbled to take on the challenge of charting the next chapter in the story of Miles Morales,” the team said in a statement.

Although Dos Santos and Thompson are making their directorial debut, both have worked on previous Sony Pictures Animation projects. Thompson previously worked on family-friendly movies like Sony Animation’s CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS and CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2

A portion of Movieguide®’s review of the first SPIDER-VERSE movie reads

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE is an animated comic book adventure where different incarnations of Spider-Man from other dimensions, including two females and a talking pig, team up to fight evil. In one dimension, Miles, a black Hispanic teenager, gets bitten by a radioactive spider. A dying Peter Parker gives Miles a key to stop a huge machine that the crime boss, Kingpin, is using to resurrect his dead wife and son, but that could destroy the world. Kingpin sends henchmen after Miles. Meanwhile, Miles meets versions of Spider-Man from other dimensions brought into Miles’ world by Kingpin’s machine. They team up to stop Kingpin.

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE is a terrific, enjoyable animated adventure with clever, funny writing. The story’s energy seldom stalls. The movie has lots of cartoon action violence and some light slapstick violence. Some of the action violence is intense, so caution is advised for children. Otherwise, the movie is family-friendly. SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE has an uplifting Christian, moral worldview. Its redemptive pro-family themes extol love, sacrifice, forgiveness, doing the right thing, saving others, and getting a second chance.

“We are so lucky to have Joaquim, Justin and Kemp on the ‘Spider-Verse’ team,” Lord and Miller said in a statement. “We are huge fans of Joaquim’s work — he makes his characters so heartfelt and unique, and he can tell an emotional story with an action sequence the way a musical does through a song. Justin is a maverick filmmaker who relentlessly pursues visual innovation and surprise but always in support of the emotional storytelling. Kemp’s work is incisive and ambitious and funny — with a writer’s wisdom and a director’s heart — he just knows what matters in every scene. All three of them elevate every project they take on, and they are certainly raising our game. We honestly just like them and want to be their friends and we’re hoping working on this movie together for the next few years will totally make that happen.”

The SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE sequel is expected to release in Oct. of 2022.