Sony Pictures Animation's Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse is still in an early, rough stage, but composer Daniel Pemberton says it has already moved him to tears. Speaking at Deadline's Sound & Screen event, Pemberton said the latest version he watched made him cry several times. The clip went up on Friday, November 6. Check out the official post down below:
What Pemberton Saw
Pemberton did not see finished animation. He saw an animatic, the stage where storyboard panels are cut together with temporary dialogue, music and sound effects so the filmmakers can test pacing and story before the expensive animation work is done.
"The last cut I saw made me cry multiple times," he said. "And when something can do that when it's an animatic, and it's still early... I think everyone's going to be in for a real treat."
He also spoke about the pressure on the team. "We all know we've got to make the greatest ending to a trilogy ever with that film," Pemberton said.
A New Animation Style For The Finale
Beyond the Spider-Verse is also changing how it looks. Phil Lord and Chris Miller have explained that Beyond the Spider-Verse goes 2D multiplane with handheld virtual cameras. The multiplane approach stacks flat layers at different depths, similar to the classic technique used in hand-drawn animation, rather than treating every shot as a standard 3D scene.
Live-action camera operators are shooting scenes inside the virtual sets with handheld rigs, and Alice Brooks is serving as the film's director of photography. The first 2 movies mixed comic book print textures, varied frame rates and different art styles for each Spider-Person, and Across the Spider-Verse moved between 6 different universes.
The Team Behind The Trilogy Finale
Bob Persichetti and Justin K. Thompson are directing. Persichetti co-directed 2018's Into the Spider-Verse, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and Thompson, the production designer on the first film, co-directed 2023's Across the Spider-Verse with Joaquim Dos Santos and Kemp Powers. Across the Spider-Verse earned more than $690 million worldwide. Lord and Miller return as writers and producers.
The voice cast is led by Shameik Moore as Miles Morales and Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy, with Oscar Isaac, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Daniel Kaluuya, Nicolas Cage and Brian Tyree Henry also listed by Sony Pictures Animation. The story continues from Across the Spider-Verse, which ended with Miles stuck on Earth-42.
Pemberton scored both earlier films and is back for the finale. His Spider-Verse scores combine orchestral writing with hip-hop beats and record scratching, and each film also had a separate song soundtrack. Into the Spider-Verse included Post Malone and Swae Lee's "Sunflower," which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, while Metro Boomin produced the soundtrack album for Across the Spider-Verse.
Outside of animation, Pemberton earned a Golden Globe nomination for his Steve Jobs score and has also scored The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Enola Holmes. He most recently reunited with Lord and Miller on their live-action film Project Hail Mary.
Sony Pictures Animation's most recent original film was covered in GOAT Trailer And Poster Sees NBA Icon Stephen Curry Voice A Giraffe In New Movie From Spider-Verse Studio.
Beyond The Spider-Verse Release Date
Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse opens in theaters on June 18, 2027, over Father's Day weekend in the United States. That is a little more than 4 years after Across the Spider-Verse arrived on June 2, 2023.
Which visual style from the first 2 Spider-Verse movies do you most want to see return in Beyond the Spider-Verse?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.