Just when you think the pandemic-induced release date domino effect is over for good, along comes Sony to kick animated sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse back by eight months until June 2023.
As the follow-up to one of the best superhero movies ever made in either live-action or animation, one that landed an Academy Award that it fully merited and completely deserved, you can imagine how devastated fans were from the second the news was first announced.
Sure, Madame Web may have been announced for next summer and Denzel Washington’s third Equalizer is coming sooner than we may have thought, but the Across the Spider-Verse news is still stinging. As you can see below, the wait to see Miles Morales swing back onto our screens for another multiversal adventure being stretched out by an additional eight months hasn’t gone down too well online.
On the plus side, it means the core creative team have additional time to hone Across the Spider-Verse to precision, because it’s not easy trying to deliver a worthwhile successor to an undisputed modern classic, and that’s without even mentioning the exceedingly ambitious nature of trying to tell a two-part story with a concept that literally has no storytelling limits whatsoever.
The fandom will get over it eventually, and it’s not as if Sony is slacking in the superhero department, either. Kraven the Hunter and Madame Web will both be with us before Across the Spider-Verse, but that might not be a good thing if either of the next two installments in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe turn out to be anything like Morbius.