Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse directors named

There’s big news flying around the Spider-Verse at the moment, and the least concerning of the lot is that Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse’s directors have been named. Look's like it's in safe hands, web-heads.

Bob Persichetti and Justin K. Thompson are lined up to direct the upcoming animated Spider-Man film, according to Deadline.

It’s great news, given the wealth of experience they have working in the series. Justin K. Thompson directed Across the Spider-Verse — his first big league directing job — and was production designer on Into the Spider-Verse.

Bob Persichetti, meanwhile, directed Into the Spider-Verse. We’re crossing the streams in what appears to be a wholly positive way.

Self-aggrandising rumour mill Jeff Sneider claims a good chunk of the movie was already made and scrapped due to creative differences, but producer Christopher Miller claims the leaker was simply making stuff up. Fingers crossed that's the case.

Beyond the Spider-Verse release date

The bad news is Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse is not expected to hit cinemas until 2026 at the earliest. It has been removed from Sony’s 2025 release slate, and currently has no official release date at all.

It was originally scheduled for a 2024 release but, in a shift we’ve heard countless times now, its production was delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA strikes.

This isn’t actually out of kilter for this Spider-Man offshoot, though. There was an almost 5-year gap between the two Spider-Verse movies. A 2026 release would still mean a much smaller window between sequels this time.

One other rumour could potentially upset this film’s progress, though. Leaker MyTimeToShine claims Sony is “seriously considering” selling the Spider-Man movie franchise back to Marvel.

This may sound a bit off when the Sony-produced MCU Spider-Man movies have been the biggest Marvel character hits in recent years — 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home made $1.95 billion in cinemas. But the Spider-Man universe spin-offs have either been flops, including Morbius and Madame Web, or are now over in their current incarnation — like Tom Hardy's run at Venom.

You’d imagine Tom Holland may want to put the Spider-Man costume in the back of the cupboard after Spider-Man 4 too, due in 2026. By the time of its release he will have spent a decade playing Peter Parker. Maybe it's time Miles Morales made his live-action debut?

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