Sony sets new date for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

By Blair Marnell Published April 21, 2022

In 2018, Sony Pictures Animation’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse struck a chord with audiences on its way to critical and box-office success, as well as an eventual Oscar win for Best Animated Movie. Last year, Sony announced that the sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part 1, would arrive on October 7, 2022. But fans are going to have to wait another eight months to see it. Via Deadline, Sony Pictures has shuffled several release dates ahead of next week’s CinemaCon. And Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now slated to hit theaters on June 2, 2023.

While Across the Spider-Verse no longer has “Part 1” in its name, it is still a two-part movie. Now, the sequel also has a release date. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part 2 will arrive March 29, 2024. Sony didn’t offer a reason for the delays, but animated films are sometimes more complex to create than live-action movies, so this could simply be a case of giving the animators more time to refine the sequels.

Miles Morales in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. — Sony Pictures Animation

A more perplexing move is Sony’s decision to premiere its Madame Web movie on July 7, 2023, in the middle of the summer and just over a month after Across the Spider-Verse‘s debut. If Across the Spider-Verse has significant box-office legs like its predecessor, Madame Web will arrive just in time for Sony to compete with itself. Another factor working against Madame Web‘s potential success is the fact that the title character is even more obscure than Morbius, and she has never even had her own comic book series. Sony has often boasted about its control of over 900 Spider-Man-related characters, but not all of them can headline a movie. Making this film standout could prove to be a real challenge for the studio.

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In other Sony news, the studio is moving its animated film Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile to October 7, the date formerly held by Across the Spider-Verse. The studio’s Korean War drama, Devotion, will have a limited release on October 14, before adding theaters on October 21 ahead of the full release on October 28. Finally, the latest entry in Denzel Washington’s action franchise, The Equalizer 3, will now arrive in theaters on September 1, 2023.

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Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek…

Entertainment

With Madame Web bombing, it’s time to ask: Who wants a Spider-Verse without Spider-Man?

Ezekiel stands in front of a billboard in Madame Web.

You didn’t need powers of clairvoyance to see this weekend’s bad box office news coming. No, eyes and ears alone could have told you that the forecast was not bright for Madame Web, the new superhero anti-spectacle starring Dakota Johnson as a paramedic beset by visions of catastrophe (and pressed, rather begrudgingly, into protecting some future Spider-Women). The movie amassed a measly $26.2 million over the extended Valentine’s Day holiday. Is anyone surprised? The writing was on the wall(crawler) from the minute we saw the trailer, which was cursed with line deliveries that provoked more mocking memes than genuine excitement.

There are simple explanations for why Madame Web flopped. The reviews are terrible. The title character is obscure. General interest in superheroes is on the wane. And yes, the early look provided by the trailers seemed to promise only unintentional laughs. But maybe there’s a more fundamental issue with this latest attempt to turn Marvel back issues into big-screen business. Maybe, just maybe, audiences aren’t that interested in a Spider-Man movie without Spider-Man.

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Madame Web: how many post-credits scenes does it have?

Dakota Johnson looks at someone in Madame Web.

If you're coming into the weekend without any idea about who the title character of Madame Web is, then you're not alone. For all of the barbs that The Marvels got – and we've fired a few ourselves – the three characters at the center of that movie at least had the benefit of having two headliners between them. Not one of the main characters in Madame Web has ever held down an ongoing comic book series, least of all Dakota Johnson's Cassandra Web.

But for any comic book movie fans who just have to know about the future of Sony's Spider-Man Universe – aka the movies that don't actually feature Spider-Man – then we can tell you right now how many post-credits scenes that Madame Web has.
How many post-credits scenes does Madame Web have?
None. There's nothing at the mid-credits or the post-credits, so you can run for the exit as soon as the credits roll. Although you may want to leave sooner than that. But consider this post as your clairvoyant vision of the future, which will allow you to stop yourself from losing 116 minutes of your life that you'll never get back. Why should you pay money to see a film that will probably be on Netflix by this summer?

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Madame Web’s ending, explained

Four women stand in a NYC corner in "Madame Web."

Sony and Marvel's latest Spider-Man spinoff, Madame Web, has finally swung into theaters. Set in the year 2003, Madame Web follows paramedic/clairvoyant Cassie Webb (Dakota Johnson) as she tries to protect three young women destined to become Spider-Women from being hunted down by the evil Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim). Said Spider-Women include Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Mattie Franklin (Celeste O'Connor), and Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced).

Though it is only the fourth film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe, it has been received just as well as one would expect from the franchise at this point. Before this film even came out, fans knew it would be another misfire on par with Morbius, and things have turned out just as they were foretold. Nevertheless, it's clear that this story is meant to set up something big for the franchise. So now, let's break down what the movie and its ending mean for this cinematic universe.
What is Madame Web about?