In the midst of the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, Sony Pictures delayed a number of upcoming movies, including Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.
This past June's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was very much The Empire Strikes Back of this trilogy, ending with a major cliffhanger sending up the next instalment. That left fans eager to return to the Spider-Verse, but the wait looks set to be considerably longer than first expected.
While Beyond the Spider-Verse meeting its planned March 2024 release always seemed unlikely, the fact the threequel's release date is now "TBD" (which is essentially the same as an indefinite delay) has proved to be a major disappointment for fans.
Talking to Digital Spy about their new movie Strays, producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller made it clear the movie will...well, it will get here when it gets here.
"Those conversations are thankfully above our paygrade," Lord said of the delay, "but I can tell you we're already hard at work on it, and we'll take the time it takes to make it great," adding it will only be released "when it is ready."
Miller chimed in to say, "What we're trying to accomplish with the film is have it be the most satisfying conclusion to the story than it can be, and take it to places that you haven’t been before. And make you laugh and cry, and cheer and think."
Even before the release date delay was made official, we'd heard that none of the cast had recorded lines and the animation wasn't close to being done. Now, there's even talk of Beyond the Spider-Verse swinging into theaters as late as 2026.
That would be a crushing wait for fans excited to see how the story ends, but there was a five-year gap between Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and its follow-up...