As Sony Pictures Animation celebrates its 20th anniversary, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller explained why the studio truly was the only one that could have created the Spider-Verse -- whether or not the rights to Spider-Man were a factor.
In an interview with TheWrap, Lord and Miller, who first wrote and directed Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs for Sony Animation in 2009, shared how they felt working with the production house. ”It’s a studio that didn’t have a long legacy of 'This is how we do things here,' which is a great advantage to people like us who always want to do things differently,” Miller remarked. “There are a lot of gatekeepers in animation.” Lord and Miller worked with Sony again on the 2018 film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. In addition to its critical success, Into the Spider-Verse grossed nearly $400 million worldwide. Miller attributed much of the success to the animation studio. “I don’t think we could have made Spider-Verse at any other studio, not just because Sony has the rights to Spider-Man,” he said.
Following the success of Into the Spider-Verse, a sequel was announced, and Lord and Miller later revealed it would actually be the first chapter of a two-film story. Miller commented on the franchise’s continued popularity, saying, “If you’re just trying to imitate a thing that everyone else is doing, it’s not going to be something that audiences want to pay to bring their whole family to see. But if it’s something that they feel like they can’t see anywhere else and they’ve never seen anywhere else, then that’s something that they want.”
Spider-Man's Complicated Film Rights History
Sony has held the rights to Spider-Man since 1999 after Marvel filed for bankruptcy in 1996, having already relinquished both the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises to Fox in 1993. In 2005, Marvel restructured itself as Marvel Studios, intending to turn properties they still owned into movie franchises. Kevin Feige was hired in 2007, and the studio released Iron Man the next year. Years later, after another 11 films, Feige approached Sony with a deal in mind. After much negotiating, Tom Holland made his MCU debut as the web-slinger in Captain America: Civil War. As part of the deal with Sony, Holland starred in three films for the two studios, which even brought back Maguire and Garfield as guest stars in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The star of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Miles Morales, was first introduced in Marvel Comics' Ultimate Fallout #4 in 2011. Voiced by Shameik Moore, Into the Spider-Verse was Miles' first big-screen appearance, though his presence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was previously teased in a deleted scene from Spider-Man: Homecoming wherein Donald Glover played the character’s uncle.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is slated for release on June 2, 2023. The third installment, Beyond the Spider-Verse, is set to hit theaters on March 29, 2024.
Source: TheWrap