Across the Spider-Verse composer aims to ‘outdo’ original with opera, punk rock, and ‘crazy sound design’
Flute players look away; Daniel Pemberton says there aren’t any in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, this summer’s sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
“There’s a scoop for you right now,” the composer joked, speaking via video chat. “There’s no woodwinds anywhere on Spider-Verse 2.”
Pemberton spoke to Polygon on his day off from both crafting the score to Across the Spider-Verse and preparing for Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Live in Concerton March 17 in New York City — sharing what made Into the Spider-Verse such a standout experience, why a live orchestra screening of it had to happen in Brooklyn, and even a few teases for Across the Spider-Verse, too.
It might be difficult to remember, now that Into the Spider-Verse has an Academy Award under its belt and a growing list of films inspired by its signature comics-influenced look, but there was a time when most people knew it as “that other Sony Spider-Man movie, the animated one. No, it’s not in the MCU.”
Even Pemberton says he struggled to get his friends to see the film — then they’d call him up a year later to tell him they finally watched it and were blown away.
“It’s been really interesting to watch how people didn’t really care about this movie,” he said. “They just thought, Oh, I know what this movie is. And that’s what’s been fun about it. I think everyone feels they discovered this movie; it’s their movie.”
Pemberton’s kinetic, inventive, energetic, and emotional score was a not-insignificant part of that love. Sequences like Miles’ leap of faith — combining the orchestra with Blackway and Black Caviar’s “What’s Up Danger” — and a chase scene in which Miles yo-yos Peter B. Parker’s unconscious body across Manhattan, scored by recording a
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