It seems the next chapters in the Spider-Verse franchise of animated films were originally planned to have a larger, Avengers: Endgame-style ending.
Speaking during a recent interview with The Direct, Ere Santos — an Animation Supervisor at Walt Disney Animation Studios — spoke about the initial pitch for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and mentioned that this film and the third were originally going to be one two-and-a-half-hour long movie.
“[We were asking] ‘Wait, so this is what a two-and-a-half-hour movie?’ This is a really large story that they’re telling,” said Santos. “And with all the arcs that they wanted to put in, we were just thinking this was going to be an intense, quick, fast-paced, high-energy movie.”
Initially, Santos said, the producers of the film were envisioning a single movie that had some “Endgame-esque stuff” in it. However, Santos noted that spreading the film out and turning it into two films gave them the breathing room the team needed to fully tell the story they want.
“But it would have been good,” Santos said.” It would have been like, what they were planning was gonna be like ‘Endgame‘-esque stuff. Like it was huge. And what they’re planning is still huge. But then kind of spreading it out and into two gives it that breathing room we all felt that it really needed to kind of go, ‘Okay, what do you what do we need to set up in the second movie? And how can we resolve it in the third movie? Or not?’ I don’t know. We’ll have to see.”
“Miles Morales returns for the next chapter of the Spider-Verse saga, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” reads the synopsis. “After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must redefine what it means to be a hero so he can save the people he loves most.”
The film is directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson. It stars Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Jake Johnson, Issa Rae, Daniel Kaluuya, Jason Schwartzman, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez, Greta Lee, Rachel Dratch, Jorma Taccone, Shea Whigham, and Oscar Isaac.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is produced by Phil Lord, Chris Miller, Amy Pascal, Avi Arad, and Christina Steinberg, with Alonzo Ruvalcaba. The first film’s director Peter Ramsey and Aditya Sood are executive producing.