Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Directors Talk About Paying Homage to Comic-Book Creators With the Film’s Various Animation Styles

We’re just hours away from the release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

The upcoming film takes the concept of the multiverse to a different level, as multiple Spider-People make an appearance. The sequel to 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is being directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson.

The trio of directors has its own set of expertise. According to Dos Santos, while Powers’ strong point is writing, Thompson, on the other hand, has “an amazing eye for design.” Along with that, he also stated his own background as a story artist helped tell the film’s plot through its visuals.

All three directors are able to showcase their talents because of the franchise’s writers and producers, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. “One of the greatest assets of being on a Lord and Miller production is that everybody has a voice in the room,” said Dos Santos. “If an idea is working or playing, it doesn’t matter where it came from. It gets put in.”

Speaking of ideas, the directors’ main vision with the sequel was to “break even more boundaries both in terms of visuals and the storyline.” One of the main aspects of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is the various new worlds and characters it will introduce.

These new elements will be showcased in a variety of different visual and animation styles. Thompson also stated that the film gave them an opportunity to pay homage to the comic book artists that have worked on characters like Spider-Man all their lives.

“All the different comic book artists that have ever drawn Spider-Man or Spider-Woman have done so with different media, and they’ve all drawn it slightly differently,” he said. “So, some use markers, some use paintbrushes, or pen and ink, or pencils. So, what’s exciting is being able to explore all those different techniques and bring them into a three-dimensional space so that it feels immersive.”

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will release in ten languages including English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, and Bengali across theatres in India on June 1.