With the highly-anticipated sequel to the 2018 Oscar and Golden Globe-winning animated film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, currently in production at Sony, the new directing trio has been revealed by the studio.
According to Variety, Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson are set to take over directorial duties on the sequel from Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman – who helmed the first Into the Spider-Verse instalment.
Dos Santos, who is making his feature debut, has directed episodes on numerous animated television series including Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, and Justice League Unlimited. Powers currently has Oscar nominations for his adapted screenplay of One Night in Miami and for his co-directed Pixar film Soul. While Thompson, who is also making his feature debut, was the Annie award-winning production designer of the first Spider-Verse, and has also served as production designer on the two Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movies.
The outlet also revealed that Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who produced the first Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse film, will serve as screenwriters alongside David Callaham (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings). Lord and Miller provided a statement on the hiring of Dos Santos, Powers, and Thompson.
“We are so lucky to have Joaquim, Justin and Kemp on the Spider-Verse team. 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.”
Although very little is known regarding the plot of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2, besides Sony CEO Amy Pascal stating that the sequel will highlight Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy’s romance in between two universes, producer Christopher Miller has teased that the follow-up film will be using “new groundbreaking art techniques.” The film is currently scheduled for an October 7th, 2022 release.
