Across the Spider-Verse Production Controversy

06/23/2023 02:43 pm EDT

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is web-slinging its way up the box office charts – but a new report is claiming that the production of the film became a toxic work environment for quite a few of the artists that worked on the project.  In addition to singling out co-writer and producer Phil Lord as an erratic and unrealistic head of the production, the report also claims that the third film in the trilogy, Beyond the Spider-Verse, has no way of making its Spring 2024 release date. 

Well, the report by Vulture didn’t just take comments from the artists – it also offers comments from and executive at Sony, as well as Amy Pascal, head of Pascal Pictures and a shepherd of Sony’s Spider-Man movies. According to both executives, the kind of working conditions artists are saying existed on Across the Spider-Verse are not at all unusual for an animated feature of this caliber.

Executive vice-president and general manager of Sony Pictures Imageworks, Michelle Grady, argued that Phil Lord was not so much the overlord in charge, as some of the artist accounts make it seem: he was more of a go-between for studio executives, writers, directors, and artist teams, managing changes that any one of those factions (or all of them) wanted to implement. Grady sees Lord as a “convenient target for worker ire,” more so than anything. 

As for the specific allegations that Lord made exhaustive changes to Across the Spider-Verse during production, Grady says: “It really does happen on every film. Truly, honestly, it can be a little bit frustrating, but we always try to explain that this is the process.” 

Amy Pascal added to that sentiment, arguing that animation requires a lot of revision and re-doing in order to make a hit film a hit: 

“One of the things about animation that makes it such a wonderful thing to work on is that you get to keep going until the story is right,” Pascal said. “If the story isn’t right, you have to keep going until it is.” 

It probably won’t please artists or fans alike that Pascal ended with a hard-line stance against worker complaints, stating: “I guess, Welcome to making a movie.”

This report on Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’s production issues comes at a pivotal time in the industry. Issues of workers’ rights in Hollywood have blown up into a full-blown Writers’ Strike, with SAG (Screen Actors Guild) possibly joining the fray. There have also been additional uproars from multiple sectors of entertainment, including visual effects houses working on franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, gaming studios, and even anime production houses. While Pascal may be trying to maintain the line of the industry status quo, the post-COVID world is one where workers are no longer content to let those old status quos stand. 

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now playing in theaters. 

Disclosure: ComicBook is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of Paramount. Sign up for Paramount+ by clicking here.