Animated ‘Spider-Man’ Movie to be Released in 2018

By Cheri Cheng - 23 Apr '15 14:03PM

"Spider-Man" will return to the big screen in 2018 and no, Andrew Garfield will not be reprising the role of Peter Parker.

Instead, Sony announced that the movie will be animated. Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the directing duo behind "The Lego Movie," "22 Jump Street" and "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," will write and produce the film. Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach and Amy Pascal are on board as well.

Tom Rothman, the chairman of Sony Pictures, made the announcement at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.

"The film will exist independently of the projects in the live-action Spider-Man universe, all of which are continuing," the press release said. There is no word on which Spider-Man, Peter Parker or Miles Morales, the movie will feature.

A live-action "Spider-Man" is scheduled to hit theaters on July 28, 2017. Rothman did not release any details about that movie during his announcement. The live-action film will be produced by Marvel's Kevin Feige and former Sony Pictures head's Pascal and it will reportedly follow Peter Parker's story.

TheWrap reported that Sony and Marvel are closing in on their list of contenders for the movie. This list allegedly includes Nat Wolff, Asa Butterfield, Tom Holland, Timothee Chalamet and Liam James. Sony will reportedly do test offers to some of these young up-and-coming actors and will make a final decision within the next two to three weeks. Sony and Marvel have not made any comments regarding this short list.

Before the stand-alone film, Spider-Man will make a cameo in Marvel's "Captain America: Civil War," which comes out on May 6, 2016.

The animated movie is set to hit theaters on July 20, 2018.