Japanese Spider-Man approved for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Sequel

The 1978 Japanese live-action incarnation of Spider-Man will appear in Into the Spider-Verse 2, based on a tweet from the producer Phil Lord.

The movie contained the Japanese Spider-Man, Lord responded to a fan who originally asked that, if he could help design the Into the Spider-Verse 2 version of the character. Phil Lord replied simply enough: “He’s designed!”

Here’s an Honest Trailer from Screen Junkies released in 2018 for the Japanese Spider-Man:

Japanese Spider-Man originally released in 1978. Until early 1979, it’s running for 41 episodes. It produced by Toei, the company responsible for Japanese animated classics like Sailor Moon, Digimon, and Dragon Ball. With some pretty major plot differences, the series featured a lot of similar Spider-Man iconography. Rather than Peter Parker or Miles Morales, it featured motorcycle racer, Takuya Yamashiro.

Takuya is the one who witnesses the crash of a UFO named the Marveller. He ends up gaining the familiar spider powers from the UFO’s last survivor, plus a bracelet that can transform the Marveller into a giant robot. That helps Spider-Man defend earth from a villain named Professor Monster and his evil army.

The series featured a lot of tropes familiar to sentai genre fans, including tons of generic masked henchmen, martial arts fights and enemies. They are the one who eventually transforms into colossal versions of themselves, and fights Spider-Man’s mecha. He also shoots a literal gun at one point. Marvel used to host at least some episodes from the show on their official site, but it appears that those may have been removed at some point in the last few years.

Sony Animation confirmed the existence of Into the Spider-Man: Spider-Verse 2

Sony Animation only just recently confirmed the existence of Into the Spider-Man: Spider-Verse 2 this past week. The company also confirmed a release date of April 8, 2022, a teaser video Sony posted appears to flash multiple versions of Miles Morales’ Spider-Man logo. An all-female character spinoff is also reportedly in development, although Sony has remained quiet about details this far.