Phil Lord and Chris Miller have delivered hit after hit in multiple genres, whether it's comedy (21 Jump Street), animation (The LEGO Movie), or science fiction (Project Hail Mary). They're also one of the main creative driving forces behind the Spider-Verse movies.
Following a string of failed movies like Morbius, Madame Web, and Kraven the Hunter, many fans would like to see Lord and Miller take charge of Sony's live-action Spider-Man-adjacent projects.
It's not hard to see why after Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Spider-Noir is also generating a lot of positive buzz, and Josh Horowitz asked the filmmakers whether they've ever been approached to helm a live-action Spider-Man adventure.
"Yes," Miller replied. "As you know, we love Spider-Man. We're fans of the character," he added, clearly reluctant to reveal which movie it was. Lord then chimed in to joke, "I would say, I would long to have the headspace available for another one of those things."
Talk then turned to The Flash, and what their vision for the Scarlet Speedster looked like. Miller started by saying that they had "a very elaborate treatment that we really like," and Lord confirmed it was "pretty different" from what ended up racing into theaters in 2023. "It's a good idea that I am afraid to not be able to use someday," he noted, declining to share any specific plot details.
Back to the wall-crawler, and talk turned to the long-delayed Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. After bemoaning Sony's decision to announce a 2024 release date, Miller said, "We are still on schedule for next June. It's going great. The story is coming along great. The animation is beautiful, and we've ported some interesting stuff over from Project Hail Mary."
"That digital pre-shoot that we did with Greig [Fraser]. We are doing that methodology for the camera work with DP Alice Brooks, and she's been doing an amazing job," the filmmaker continued. "It's revolutionising how uh how we can get the camera work to be super inventive and natural feeling."
Confirming that the threequel is the "most emotional of the three movies," they played coy on reports about plans for Spider-Gwen and Spider-Punk spin-offs. Lord did, however, say that "things are moving," but confirmed that the Spider-Verse story ends with Beyond (interestingly, it doesn't sound like they're involved with those projects).
The duo also touched on Prime Video's Spider-Noir, confirming that Nicolas Cage is going to play Ben Reilly "like a spider pretending to be a person."
Several times throughout the interview, Lord and Miller said they're eager to continue telling original stories rather than tackling any more established franchises. Based on their response to being briefly asked about Solo: A Star Wars Story, they're still smarting from that negative experience with Disney and Lucasfilm.
With Peter Parker still entrenched in the MCU, the moment might have passed for them to tackle a live-action Spider-Man movie. Them overseeing a new slate of spin-offs wouldn't be the worst idea, though.
You can hear more from Lord and Miller in the player below.