After initial reports indicated that the Spider-Man from the 1990s classic animated Spider-Man series would be appearing in Into the Spider-Verse 2, Spider-Man producer John Semper Jr. has debunked the rumors online.
Semper, the longtime writer and producer of the beloved 1990s series, contacted the wife of Christopher Barnes, who played Spider-Man/Peter Parker on the animated program and she revealed that Barnes had not been approached about doing the upcoming animated film.
Previously, That Hashtag Show reported that Barnes was in "final talks" with the producers about appearing in the hit Sony animated film. The rumors were that the role was a small one, but that Barnes would appear in a few key scenes and then show up in the finale (with the animation style, naturally, replicating the style of the 1990s series).
Posting on Facebook, though, Semper (who initially shared the reports, as well) revealed that that appears to not be the case.
Semper wrote, " I heard today from Chris’s wife that this is absolutely FALSE. Chris has not been approached by Sony/Marvel to reprise his role as nineties Spider-Man, which means that the Spider-Man from my series will NOT be in this upcoming movie. So spread the word. The rumor is FALSE." In other words, if Barnes is not talking with the producers at all according to his wife, he certainly couldn't be in "final talks" about appearing in the film (the movie is due out next fall, but there is a time limit on how quickly they could animate his possible sequences).
There is also a rumor that the villain of the movie will be The Spot, who can jump through dimensions using his spot-like portals. The presumption, then, is that these dimensional trips would involve quick cameos by different versions of Spider-Men, to up the ante from the original Into the Spider-Verse, which featured "only" nine or so different versions of Spider-Man (A slightly older Peter Parker, Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, Penny Parker, Spider-Ham, Spider-Man Noir and a murdered Peter Parker, plus Spider-Man 2099 and the original Spider-Man cartoon in a post-credits sequence).
Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller serving as producers alongside Sony's Amy Pascal, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2 arrives in theaters Oct. 7, 2022.
Source: Making of Spider-Man the Animated Series on Facebook