Bob Persichetti, a director of Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, concedes that the audience bar is rising ahead of the third outing in the Oscar-decorated blockbuster franchise.

“Expectations are kind of limitless and we have to try to meet them,” he told Sony Pictures Animation President Kristine Belson with a grin during a panel discussion at the Crunchyroll Anime Future Forum.

Even though the chat took place at the Javits Center, where New York Comic Con will be held over the next few days, the point of the session was not plot teases or fan service. (Persichetti did show attendees the same work-in-progress footage from the film that screened at Cinema Con in April but Sony is holding back for now on an official teaser for the June 2027 release.)

The discussion instead focused on process and also, in keeping with the theme across other Crunchyroll sessions, about creating an animated work that draws on a multitude of influences but retains its originality.

Belson asked Persichetti, who directs the films with Justin K. Thompson, about how things have changed since the first installment in 2018.

“There were all these questions of, like, ‘Wait, who is it really for?!’” he recalled. “Because it’s not an outright comedy. There’s going to be action in it and Spider-Man guys – what are you doing?! And I think it was at that moment when we were in the room together and we screened it. It was made very clear to us that, ‘Oh, we have been underestimating the general audience for a long time in terms of what the sophistication of an animated film can be.’”

The first film wound up winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature en route to a global box office haul of $395 million. The follow-up, Across the Spider-Verse, took in $690.5 million in 2023 and was nominated for Best Animated Feature, losing out to The Boy and the Heron.

Since the franchise left its unique mark, Persichetti said, “The animation industry is going, ‘Oh, you can make choices that seem unorthodox and still make money and still succeed.’”

In the sequel, he said, “we piled on like five different looks and wondered if it was working and people said, ‘not only is it working, but we want more,’” the director said. “What we learned is that the audience is fine with the image changing every shot. … That’s ultimately how we were able to do so many things in one movie. The narrative throughline was creating this incredible visual extravagance.”

Technology has evolved dramatically since a decade ago when the franchise began. The filmmakers and crew are “seeing more creative choices” at a preliminary stage of the process, Persichetti said. “We’re able to think about a movie, holistically, creatively, much earlier.”

The collaborative way of making the film revolves around keeping an open mind, with writer/producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller in the mix and material taken from real-life experiences. For all of its visual energy, Persichetti said, the original film “was really a movie, in my eyes, that was about Miles and his family. It was also sort of a love letter to New York. It’s also a love letter to hip-hop music and, ultimately, a love letter to Spider-Man.”

The filmmakers have “never said no to an idea,” the director continued. “If it’s an idea we’re doing in the movie, it will be stress-tested repeatedly, and then maybe the real idea ends up being not that thing but pieces of the stuff, pieces of that idea might fall into place on something else.”

The breakthrough of the first film earned the directors considerable leeway, Perischetti said. “We are very fortunate because we’re now on our third movie. The first two movies were successful, and the studio trusts us to make these movies. So we get to explore, probably way more than others do. But I will say, even on that first movie, we were exploring things that nobody believed in, and at first we weren’t even sure worked.”

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Hey Creatorverse readers,

For better or worse, it’s over. On Tuesday, Skydance officially acquired Warner Bros. Discovery a little more than a year after acquiring Paramount Global.

Co-CEO David Ellison has been clear that this move was designed to give both Paramount and WBD — two cable-focused media empires that were late to the streaming game — a better fighting chance in the modern media landscape. It’s hard to argue with him on this point. Though WBD’s streaming division surpassed an impressive $3 billion in its second quarter and Paramount’s streaming profits hit $366 million, both companies have had a long, confusing and rebrand-filled path to streaming. But while this merger may help with the streaming wars, it’s unclear what the strategy is when it comes to the TV industry’s latest contest: the battle over creators.

Out of all the major media companies, Paramount and WBD have the weakest strategies when it comes to working with content creators. 

WBD is the stronger contender of the two. Though there have been several interesting collaborations between WBD properties and creators, there’s not a larger company-wide creator effort like Disney, Netflix, Fox or NBCUniversal have demonstrated. 

Food Network has developed a strong relationship with TikTok through its culinary-focused Hot List, and the two organizations collaborated on a live show. Both Cartoon Network and Adult Swim also have a history of recruiting creators to help them develop new projects. Vanessa Brookman, general manager of kids, global streaming and international networks for Cartoon Network, previously told me that the network has found promising creators after seeing how they use Cartoon Network IP on Roblox, and for years Adult Swim has helped make content with indie animators using its shorts development program “Smalls.” There’s also HBO, which has developed a strong marketing arm using creators and has a good track record giving buzzy comedians on social media specials.

As for Paramount, the media company with an audience that skews older hasn’t really moved beyond inviting creators to premieres. The company did launch the CBS Sports Creator Studio in 2023, and “The Daily Show” has done an excellent job of capitalizing on Josh Johnson’s virality by promoting the comedian to be one of its weekly hosts. But these efforts are few and far between. 

It’s also unclear what Skydance’s Co-CEO David Ellison thinks of content creators. Ellison has said that his goal is to make Skydance “the No. 1 destination for the most talented storytellers in the world,” but so far most of his efforts seem to revolve around courting established Hollywood players.

Given Ellison’s love of storytelling and the box office splash Curry Barker’s “Obsession” and Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms” made, it’s probably safe to say that the new Skydance is open to working with the right creators. But merging companies and gaining Hollywood’s trust takes a lot of time and energy, and it seems likely that creators aren’t yet a major priority for this new era. Playing streaming catch up could cause both Paramount and WBD to fall even further behind.

Now onto the rest.

Kayla Cobb

Senior Reporter
kayla.cobb@thewrap.com

What’s New

Dhar Mann promises to help broker $100 million in deals between creators and brands while unveiling Creator City

Some big news out of New York’s Advertising Week. Dhar Mann has promised to help broker $100 million worth of deals between creators and brands within the next year as part of his role as the conference’s first-ever chief creator officer. Mann is helping to connect creators with advertising and brand heads. He clarified that this proclamation doesn’t mean that there will be $100 million in contracts before the end of this week but that the combined pledges for AWNY have already exceeded that lofty benchmark. 

Mann also used AWNY to preview Dhar Mann Studios’ Creator City, a four-acre production campus based in Los Angeles. The campus includes five soundstages, and the team’s goal is to make this space a hub that brings together creators, Hollywood insiders, brands and tech companies. What Wall Street is for finance and Silicon Valley is for tech, Mann hopes Creator City will be for the creator ecosystem. The campus will open during Super Bowl weekend in February 2027.

WME debuts the Creator Labs, an in-house digital operations team

Another major talent agency is investing more heavily into the creator ecosystem. WME’s Creator Labs is designed to help the agency’s creator clients, like “Recess Therapy” and “Outside Tonight” host Julian Shapiro-Barnum, grow their businesses. The agency has hired 11 in-house staff members to work across Creator Labs and its sales team with plans to hire eight more people, according to The Publish Press. These professionals will help creator clients from the ideation phase and beyond, helping creators scale without the headache of creating their own production company.

Fox Creator Studios adds Bryan Thoensen and Kirsten McAuliffe

Fox Creator Studios, the division run by Billy Parks, has added Bryan Thoensen to its team. As the senior vice president of content partnerships, Thoensen will lead the development and execution of creator-led content franchises across the studio. He will work alongside Kirsten McAuliffe, who will serve as the senior vice president of strategic partnerships and growth for the division. McAuliffe will lead the commercial strategy for Fox Creator Studios, including the studio’s go-to-market strategy, revenue development and advertiser partnerships.

Platform Updates

YouTube Shorts cracks down on clipping

Last Friday, YouTube updated its Shorts recommendation system to prioritize creators who upload original commentary, edits or storytelling. You know who that hurts? Clippers. The practice of turning podcast videos or livestreams into smaller clips and farming them for shortform engagement has become its own cottage industry, a somewhat cursed practice that briefly convinced the media that niche creators like Clavicular were more popular than they actually are. This update simply makes it harder for people to game YouTube’s algorithm.

$81 billion was added to the U.S. GDP from businesses that used TikTok

Businesses that used TikTok last year led to $81 billion being added to the U.S. GDP last year, a new economic impact report from the company found. That same report also found that TikTok supported 410,000 jobs across the United States. The metrics on this one are a bit murky as TikTok specifically counts businesses that utilize its platform rather than what creators make on its platform, and basically every major company has a TikTok these days. Still, it’s further proof that the creator economy is increasingly vital.

ShopMy turns creators’ affiliate content into paid advertising campaigns

The ecommerce and affiliate marketing platform ShopMy launched “Spotlights” last week, an offering that converts the best-performing organic content from creators into paid advertising campaigns on Meta and TikTok. Creators can pre-approve brand requests or manually review them inside of the ShopMy platform, and brands will then pay creators a standard commission instead of an upfront production fee. This feature is the latest to try and smooth over the relationship between brands and creators.

Movers and Shakers

Brittany Broski revives “The Broski Report,” and Lilly Singh brings back her comedy sketches

Two big creators are revitalizing their channels. After taking a five-month break, Brittany Broski, known for her celebrity interview show “Royal Court,” returned to “The Broski Report.”In its first three days, her return accumulated 1 million views on YouTube.

And speaking of YouTube legends,Lilly Singh is returning to sketch comedy after spending two years hosting her podcast show “Shame Less.” Singh said she will be relaunching her YouTube channel but making it “bigger and better” as a birthday present to herself. Get it, girl.

Amelia Dimoldenberg is on Netflix, and MrBeast was on “Shark Tank”

Amelia Dimoldenberg’s “Chicken Shop Date” is the latest creator-led series to come to Netflix. You know who else is on TV these days? MrBeast. Last week, Jimmy Donaldson and Beast Industries CEO Jeff Housenbold starred as a guest shark on the ABC reality show during the show’s Season 18 premiere. 

Paris Hilton is hosting a creator summit later this month

Paris Hilton and her nonprofit 11:11 Media Impact are hosting a daylong summit for neurodivergent creators tied to ADHD Awareness Month. Titled UNSTOPPABLE, the event will bring together 50 neurodivergent creators for activations built around ADHD.

Speaking of mental health events for creators, The Jed Foundation and Creators 4 Mental Health are starting a monthly virtual support group. The meetup is designed for creators to vent in a safe space.

Who to Watch

What Happened Last Night

If you’ve ever felt awkward at a party or any social gathering, this sketch group is for you. What Happened Last Night (166,000 Instagram followers) takes the tiniest parts about being a person — like being so busy you show up to an event in your work clothes, sending too many Reels to a group chat or being a little bit quiet — and turns them into nightmare fuel. It’s like the panicked thoughts you have right before falling asleep all on display in your Reels feed. This account proves there really is a fine line between horror and comedy.

Bonus Content

• Fake Influencers, Real Money: Inside the AI Creator Business (via Mashable)
• Beauty Creators Want Brands to Go Off-Script (via Glossy)
• The 14 Most Innovative Influencer Marketers of 2026 (via Business Insider)

Want more? Explore WrapPRO now.

This report provides a weekly deep dive into the creator economy. It highlights key trends, political and technological developments, data points and industry leaders all with the goal of making you smarter about this constantly evolving space.