The Spider-Verse film series is one last movie away from securing its place as one of, if not THE, best superhero movie trilogies of all-time. Following the runaway success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in 2018 and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in 2023, the bar has been set incredibly high for the series. Thanks to those films being blockbuster successes that pushed the animation envelope, plus a cliffhanger ending, all eyes are on Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. After a series of delays, the final chapter is set to debut in 2027, and work on the film continues.
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Updates on the sequel have been sporadic and largely without much tangible information beyond progress being made, but the latest news is one that comes with a big reveal. Speaking with Empire, Spider-Verse producers and scribes Phil Lord and Christopher Miller confirmed they’re hard at work on the sequel, but revealed that the new movie will not only be formatted for IMAX screens but will also have at least some sequences in the traditional 1.43:1 IMAX ratio. “We’re actually going today to the IMAX headquarters to see what the footage looks like at scale,” Miller revealed. “And make sure that it has the resolution that it needs to look gorgeous.”
Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse Will Be a Full IMAX Experience
Miller went on to note that work on Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse is progressing well in the editing bay, teasing, “It’s a lot of movie, and a lot to do,” before jokingly adding that the film will innovate in new ways: “You got to keep doing something that hasn’t been done before. That’s all you got to do. Easy!”
Confirmation that Beyond the Spider-Verse will expand its scope to encompass a full IMAX aspect ratio, though, proves how seriously they’re taking this final chapter. Considering the major sequences in the first two movies that played out on the big screen and took audiences to different worlds and featured countless characters, we can only imagine what the canvas of full IMAX means for the content of the final film
It’s worth noting that the Spider-Verse films have previously played with aspect ratios across them. Though both are in the 2.39:1, the traditional widescreen cinematic aspect ratio, the first shrank down to 1.33:1 for some scenes, with the second expanding to 2.55:1 for other scenes. With the third film seemingly using the full image of an IMAX screen, it could mean some of the wildest scenes of the series are on the way
“Details matter,” Lord said about the film. “The thing that’s a joy about those pictures is that everyone on the crew is so good at what they do. So you just sit around, marvel at all these brilliant artists, and then we get to work with these great filmmakers, sit in a room all day, and just try to make everything incrementally better together. It’s a lot of fun.”
As Marvel fans recall, 2023’s Across the Spider-Verse ended with Miles in the clutches of his evil counterpart from another Earth, with Spider-Gwen forming a new team of Spider-Men to go and find him. What remains to be seen is anything else about what will happen in the film. With less than a year to go before the movie releases, there have still only been a handful of images that tease the events of the movie
One of the best elements of the Spider-Verse sequel was how every universe that was visited carried its own distinct visual style; the world that was home to Spider-Man India looked different from Spider-Gwen’s, which was distinct from Spider-Man 2099 and Spider-Punk. It’s possible that the third film will continue this trend, though we have no idea what universes that could include
It remains to be seen how much of Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse will actually be used in the IMAX aspect ratio, as there are very few films that keep it for their entire run time. Zack Snyder’s Justice League is one of the only ones, but it seems possible that Beyond the Spider-Verse may join it on that short list next year
Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse premieres on June 18, 2027
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