The sequel of the 2018 film, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, is one of the highly anticipated films of 2023. The first film, which took the risk to revolutionize animation in feature films, went up to win the Best Animation Feature at the 2019 Academy Awards. And the senior character animator of Across the Spider-Verse, Ere Santos, has claimed that the sequel takes animation a step further. During his recent interview with The Direct, Santos described how the animation team worked on the film and the pressure to compete against the original film.
Across the Spider-Verse is a sequel to the 2018 film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The sequel follows Miles Morales on a multiverse adventure with a team of different Spider-Men, called the Spider-Force.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’s Animation is Going to be Mind-Blowing
While explaining the animation of the upcoming film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Ere Santos described it as exciting and mind-blowing. When he was asked if he thinks fans are ready for the film’s visuals, he said, “Hell no. People are not ready.”
Further explaining the animation style, Santos said he did not want anything grand and claimed that expectations for visuals “cannot be high enough.” He also revealed that fans could expect “a lot of the same and a whole lot of different. “
“Without being too grandiose, it is going to blow your mind. The expectation, at least for the visuals, cannot be high enough. I think it’s gonna be very, very exciting.”
Ere Santos also claimed that Across the Spider-Verse will lead the animation community to question, “How the hell did they do that?” He also shared that he hopes the film leaves the same impact as the first film did after its release.
“I’m very very intrigued to see how people are going to receive the movie,” Santos said. He also shared that working on the film was quite challenging. However, he and the animation team came over it and put out what he describes as amazing and incredible.
Ere Santos Describes Working on the Sequel as a Challenge
Explaining further the animation work, Santos said that they tried to use more techniques in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. He said, “And we kind of had to maintain a specific attitude and look at well, how are we approaching it. And it’s not just the thing of animating on twos.”
He described the process as a challenge and said that they overcame it as it was exciting to explore new animation styles. The senior character animator also revealed that the animation in Across the Spider-Verse changes with every new universe, and the animation team tried to change things according to that.
Santos also said they were allowed to explore, so they experimented with several styles and chose the best one. When asked about his favorite sequence, character, or world, in the film, he said, “I’m just biting my tongue for the next six months because I’m like, ‘Oh, come on, come on. Come on. Come on. I want to see people react to this character.'”
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is expected to feature a number of Spider-Men as it explores the Spider-Verse. Miguel O’Hara, aka Spider-Man 2099, and Hobie Brown, aka, Spider-Punk, are expected to join Miles Morales in the upcoming sequel.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will release on June 2, 2023.
Source: The Direct