Directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson share their thoughts about upcoming animated film ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’

The highly anticipated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is all set to showcase a world like never before. The early reviews of the film are adding to the anticipation worldwide and audiences can’t wait to watch how the story of their favourite superhero, Spider-Man, will progress. 

The dynamic trio Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson have come together to direct this visual extravaganza. The trio of directors leading the sequel realised that the film would be more challenging than any of the previous projects in their impressive careers. Thompson, who had worked with the brilliant Oscar-winning duo of Phil Lord and Chris Miller in various capacities over the past 15 years and was production designer of the first movie, says he jumped at the chance of helming the sequel along with Kemp Powers and Joaquim Dos Santos.

Thompson recalled, “There were so many things that we wanted to do on the first film that we just didn’t know how yet or we didn’t think of until we were done watching the movie. We said, Wait a minute, there’s this other idea we could have done! We had the chance to take everything we learned and go even further and break even more boundaries both in terms of visuals and the storyline. I  think all those great visuals are only as good as your story, and that’s why the directors and the writers were able to achieve what they did so successfully in the first movie.”

He pointed out that the sequel gave the directors the opportunity to pay homage to some of the brilliant comic book artists they had admired all their lives. “Because there are all these different looks — 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. 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. You get to go into those worlds and actually step inside one of those comic books with the eclectic media that it’s made out of.”

Santos recalled the time he joined the team, “I remember they were still wrapping the first film, and when I got a glimpse at what was really going down, my mind was absolutely blown. I have been a big fan of animation and comics all my life, and this project embodied those influences and took the art form to a whole other level. So, I was in – hook, line and sinker.”

He continued, “One of the greatest assets of being on a Lord and Miller production is that everybody has a voice in the room. If an idea is working or playing, it doesn’t matter where it came from. It gets put in. We’ve often joked about the fact that as a team of three directors, we each have our own individual superpowers. Justin was the production designer on the first film, and has an amazing eye for design and knows how to push design especially when you’re visiting all these different worlds. Kemp is obviously an amazing writer. He has this fantastic backlog of work that has received every accolade and deserves even more because he’s an absolute virtuoso. My own background is as a story artist, so I am about telling stories through visual camera work. We are constantly checking each other’s work and showing each other what we are doing, and everybody has a say. It’s a very democratic process.”

Powers compared directing a massive animated movie like Spider-Verse to jumping onto a high-speed train while it’s in motion. “You have to learn a lot of material fast,” he noted. “Making any animated film is a tremendously collaborative process and I jumped at the opportunity to work with just such an incredibly talented group of people. I believed that they really shifted the paradigm in the world of feature animation. It’s a movie that is both technologically beautiful, and it was also a story that was so full of heart.” He added, “We’re all storytellers, and you’re always chasing after a well-told story, and honestly, there’s no greater story than the story of Spider-Man. He has always been one of my favourite superheroes, and Miles Morales immediately became one of my favourite characters, and to have a chance to play in a playground with all of these different characters from the Spider-Man canon, and create what I hope is new canon in this world, was truly a dream come true.”

The three directors have a feeling that this summer’s high-flying ride through the Spider-Verse will surpass everyone’s expectations. “I feel that we have the potential to really surprise everyone while sticking to the roots of what makes this movie so great – which is a story about Miles Morales and his family, his friends, his struggle,” said Powers.

Sony Pictures Entertainment India will release Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi and Bengali on 1 June 2023, in cinemas.