‘Spider-Verse’ composer has had enough of the ‘Beyond the Spider-Verse’ lies

Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse is already one of the decade’s most hotly-anticipated releases, and it doesn’t even have a premiere date—yet. While that’s likely due to a combination of many factors, composer Daniel Pemberton is setting the record straight following new rumors of BTS drama.

Discourse surrounding Marvel and Sony Animation’s comic book threequel Beyond the Spider-Verse has been pretty much nonstop since Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse swung into theaters last year. After all, the third film will complete the Miles Morales (Shameik Moore)-centric Spidey trilogy, the first two of which were critical and commercial darlings—as you may remember, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse snagged the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2019.

The latter two installments work as something of a “part 1” and “part 2,” with Across the Spider-Verse having left viewers on a massive cliffhanger regarding the fate of Miles and his multiversal counterparts, specifically Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld). But Beyond the Spider-Verse is sparking conversation for all the wrong reasons, as fans are now focusing on the alleged “drama” going on behind the curtain instead. It’s not all new, either; according to a 2023 Vulture article, some animators weren’t compensated for their work on the sequel—a film that required extensive digital artwork.

However, that particular tidbit of information barely scratches the surface, as new internet chatter has people concerned about the fate of Beyond the Spider-Verse. Speculation that Sony parted ways with the film’s original producers, Chris Miller and Phil Lord, has been spreading online since August, causing some fans to assume the worst. But is there any validity to these rumors? Well, according to longtime Marvel composer Daniel Pemberton, not exactly.

Daniel Pemberton shuts down Spider-Verse delays rumor

Initially, the third chapter in Sony’s Spider-Verse saga was slated to arrive in March 2024, which, if you happen have a calendar handy, clearly didn’t happen. Now, months after those initial complaints of poor working conditions, rumor has it that Beyond the Spider-Verse has been indefinitely delayed by Sony and Marvel. Per Hollywood scooper Jeffrey Sneider (via @DiscussingFilm on X), the threequel is “unlikely to release before 2027,” with much of the original script having been scrapped for “creative reasons.”

After this tweet went viral, Pemberton was quick to clear up the confusion. Responding to the post on X, the composer warned fans not to believe everything they read on the internet, as—shocker—it “might not always be particularly accurate.” So … release date when?!

Fact-checking (or lack thereof) continues to be a problem in the Marvel fandom

It’s no secret that the Marvel community is rife with misinformation, but I’m honestly startled by how much of it surrounds Beyond the Spider-Verse in particular. I can’t help but feel like the movie is being targeted by people online wishing for its (and by extension, the SSU’s) downfall, or if fans are just genuinely curious about its progress given how well-received the first two entries were.

Either way, we still haven’t been given an official release window, making the project’s status all the more blurry. But until we hear otherwise, we should, for all intents and purposes, assume the film’s producers and directors (Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson) are still on board, and that production on the third entry in the Spider-Verse universe is going as planned.

Ultimately, fans are correct in pointing out that it would be ridiculous for Sony to scrap the entire Beyond the Spider-Verse script this late in the game, as writers surely must have had some master plan to directly follow up 2023’s Across the Spider-Verse—I just don’t see how the studio would let that fly otherwise. It’s one thing for Lord, Miller and Co. to encourage script rewrites, which is standard for any film. But again, tweaking the story hardly means that a “massive disaster” is imminent.

Aaaaand this is exactly why crushing fake news continues to be important. Everyone say, “Thanks, Daniel Pemberton!” This kind of doomsdayer thinking often leads to unnecessary vitriol and toxicity, so again, it’s probably best that we all just sit tight for an official update on the status of Beyond the Spider-Verse. As long as animators are paid and the story is solid, then it’ll be well worth the wait.