“Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse” came out in theaters on June 1, 2023 – and is not just a source of excitement for us at the editors, as the film has been well received by cinema audiences and critics alike . In fact, the animated movie recently set an unusual record, currently topping the top 250 list on movie review site Letterboxd with a 4.7 out of 5 star rating.
So it’s no wonder there’s already speculation about how things could continue in the Spider-Verse. FILMSTARTS editor Stefan Geisler met with “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse” producer Amy Pascal via Zoom for an interview and talked to her about further missions of Miles Morales and the future of the Spider-Verse. But first, we wanted to hear from the former Sony boss, who now produces all the screen adaptations of Spider-Man characters, from Venom to Tom Holland’s MCU appearances, making him cinema’s top guardian of the super hero, how the came to that, the sequels to “Spider-Man: A New Universe” were conceived as two-part…
A two-part was the logical consequence
Amy Pascal: In the end, it made sense because we wanted to tell a longer story about Miles. I think both films can stand on their own, but belong together. We had a lot of ideas for the second part and a lot of characters and relationships that we wanted to explore. It just didn’t feel fair to cram everything into one movie.
Amy Pascal: There’s the MCU, the Spider-Verse, the other movies Sony makes, and then there’s the Tom Holland movies, which are somewhere between Sony and Marvel. In addition, there is and then there is the series area, which is slowly being developed. I think everyone works really well together to make sure we can tell full and satisfying stories about each of these characters. There have never been such concrete rules about what is and what is not allowed, but sometimes rules are good…
Amy Pascal: Oh God, how I would never dare to answer that question [lacht]. I think all these movies that explore how to tell stories from the wonderful comic books are all connected in some way. Kevin [Feige, Mastermind hinter dem Erfolg des MCU] has “Spider-Man: A New Universeabsolutely loved it and I think he will love the new movie too.
Amy Pascal: He is definitely the star of the animated universe. Everything you can dream of is possible. We just need to make sure there’s a reason to tell the story.
Amy Pascal: Sorry I can’t answer your question but we all love Donald Glover, he fits the role so perfectly and is just amazing.
What does the future of the Spider-Verse hold?
Amy Pascal: We will always strive to tell an emotional story first. Whether it’s a story about Miles, Gwen, Spider-Punk, Peter, Spider-Noir or whoever. The way we work on one of these movies is by saying, what story do we want to tell about this character – and what’s the best way to tell that story. And the challenge is always to make sure that the character’s story is always at the forefront and not lost in the whole action boom – be it live action or animated movies. And that’s the best we can hold on to.
Amy Pascal: All these films come from the same source material, so they can all touch and enrich each other in some way. Yet they all exist in their own universe – and there are many stories we can tell if we stay within those boundaries.