November 28th, 2018 
Jackson Murphy 
It may be the last major studio animated movie release of 2018 (opening Dec. 14th), but Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is also one of the most original and highly-anticipated. Combining a wide variety of narrative and artistic techniques, this film takes Spider-Man/Marvel fans places never previously imagined. Producer Christina Steinberg was part of this highly-ambitious project from the start.
Jackson Murphy: Have you always been a “Spider-Man” fan?
Christina Steinberg: I actually have been. I have been a huge “Spider-Man” and huge Marvel fan since the very beginning. So it’s really exciting to work on this movie, as you can imagine.
JM: And you previously worked with Peter Ramsey, one of the co-directors of this movie, on DreamWorks’ “Rise of the Guardians”. Is he the one who brought you onto this project?
CS: Actually we both came on at the same time. Kristine Belson was head of development at DreamWorks when Peter and I were there producing “Guardians”, and Peter directing. She came over to Sony Animation. And when “Spider-Man” started up, she asked if Peter and I wanted to come on board. Bob Persichetti, who I also know incredibly well from our DreamWorks days, was already on board as a director. And Phil [Lord] and Chris [Miller] were obviously the wonderful godfathers and producers from the beginning as well.
JM: Could you tell from Phil & Chris, the directors, everybody you’ve been working with… that this is a very different take on the “Spider-Man” story and something that audiences have really never seen before?
CS: It is. And it really felt that way from the beginning. The ambitions of everybody – really beginning with Chris & Phil, who originated this idea of making the Miles Morales version of story. It was very clear that this was going to be pushed in terms of storytelling, in terms of artistry, in terms of production design. It felt really exciting from the moment I started.
JM: I was at New York Comic Con in October for the “Spider-Verse” panel Q&A – and for the screening of the first 35 minutes of the movie. That opening section is jam-packed with action and heart. From a marketing standpoint, how did you and everybody else and Sony decide to make a decision like that – to show the first 35 minutes?
CS: I think that, as you said, it is so jam-packed. It felt really difficult to know where to cut off the reel. To really understand the story of Miles and his relationships in this universe to the Peter Parker who you meet, we couldn’t figure out a better way to show it than to reveal his relationship with the old Peter Parker and the new one – and explain that Miles is in a different universe than the one that people expect him to be in (the original “Spider-Man” spider-verse from the movies that people all know and love).
JM: I got a sense that when the cast and crew members came out on stage that this is a movie of the moment – for this character, for superhero films, for African Americans. How do you see “Spider-Verse” as a movie of the here and now.
CS: It’s really exciting to show the diversity of the world we now live in. Miles is half-Puerto Rican, half-African American. He comes from Brooklyn – in a very contemporary, modern Brooklyn that we all know. Just to show him in the world that we live in hasn’t really been done before. Miles is really, right now, one of the most popular of the Marvel characters in the comic books. To open that up and share that… and especially in a time when “Black Panther” came out this year, too, it feels really exciting that there’s diversity in comic book heroes right now.
JM: Yeah. And there are so many characters, dimensions and layers. Which of the many characters in the film would you say you relate to the most?
CS: I actually relate to so many of them on different levels. For me, as a woman and as a mother, there’s something really exciting about having Spider-Gwen in the movie – and showing a really capable, strong female character as a superhero. So I relate to Gwen on some level as a woman and a mom, but all of them – even Burrito Peter (we call him that because he used to eat a burrito, constantly, in early incarnations of this movie), the Jake Johnson Peter Parker. I love his perspective on the world. He’s a little world-weary but learns how to find his spirit again and jump back into his life.
JM: You have quite a cast in this movie: Shameik Moore from “Dope”, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry. Could you tell in working with them they could feel the importance of this film?
CS: Absolutely. The cast is so extraordinary. It was our dream cast, and we couldn’t believe when they all said “Yes”. They really were so attracted to the depths of the screenplay and the writing – and being able to tell the story of this diverse, new kind of “Spider-Man” and world. The relationship between Brian Tyree (Jefferson) and Shameik (Miles) is so strong, and it’s really the core and the foundation of the film. And it’s so heartwarming, that I think he really understood that we were trying to tell an emotional, strong family story at the core of this. All the cast did. Shameik really understood what this meant for him as an actor being able to play such a unique and exciting new kind of Spider-Man.
JM: And at the Q&A, he was talking about how he had written in a notebook a couple years earlier that he wanted to be Miles Morales in a movie at some point. And then he got the gig. That is an incredible story.
CS: I know! He told us this after we actually cast him, so it was really a wonderful surprise. When we were first looking for who to play Miles, we had heard Shameik and we knew him from “Dope”, and we were trying to get him quickly – a sample of his voice – so we could really evaluate it. He was working on another film at the time, so he literally recorded in his closest over his iPhone. We heard his recording, and we fell in love with him. We were like, “That’s Miles” right away. It was only during our first recording session when he told us that story – that this was his dream and it was written in his journal.
JM: That is amazing. The animation is complex – maybe the most ambitious yet, visually, from Sony Pictures Animation. From your viewpoint, what did it seem like was the most challenging visual aspect to be put into the film.
CS: I think there’s a couple things that were really challenging. First of all, it was really expanding the visual style, the color palette – and really trying to make this feel different than any other CG animated movie we’ve seen before. We really wanted to make it feel as if a comic book had come to life. To achieve that, this idea of hand-drawing every frame on top of the CG animation – to give it that comic book quality – was incredibly challenging. And to be honest, we weren’t sure it was going to work – for the longest time.
We were pretty far into production before we saw a final lit frame that proved it would work. It was really a leap of faith, which is a funny thing to say because that’s a key phrase in our film as well. We really just held hands and believed, with Justin [Thompson], our Production Designer, who’s so extraordinary, and Imageworks, we’d be able to achieve it.
And I think the other thing that was really difficult is having all these different Spider people come from different universes, where there are different textures and dimensions. For Spider-Man Noir to be black and white. For Peni Parker to be an anime character from an anime world in the future. We weren’t sure at first that all of these characters would visually live together on screen at the same time. It was another challenge that caused many sleepless nights, but we were really so excited when we finally saw that it could work.
JM: I think seeing all these characters in the trailers is getting audiences pumped. Also doing that is the music. Post Malone is doing a song for the soundtrack. Was it important for you to get somebody who speaks to the younger demographic to do some of the music?
CS: Absolutely. What was really important for us for the music was to make it feel like it belonged to Miles and his world. So it needed to feel contemporary and soulful, and that is so much who Post Malone is. He is such an extraordinary artist. And I think the entire soundtrack really reflects Miles, his universe… his appreciation of the world and his view of the world. But it also reflects Uncle Aaron. We have a little tribute to Uncle Aaron, who’s such a huge influence in his life. We tried to play with the music that Aaron would listen to in his world as well – sort of weaving the songs together with the soundtrack was something we spent a lot of time on. We’re so lucky to have Daniel Pemberton come on board to score the movie.
JM: And for years, I thought, “Why don’t major studios put out new fully animated movies at Christmastime?” And then a few years ago, the studios finally decided to do that. The live-action “Spider-Man” movies have been released in the summertime – they’re big summer blockbusters. Why do you think “Spider-Verse” will play well over the holiday season?
CS: At its core, it’s a superhero movie, but it’s really about family. And it’s about a young man trying to find his way in the world and live up to his family’s expectations and live-up to his goals for himself. But there’s so much warmth in there and heart that it feels like it really belongs at Christmastime.
JM: And I think it’s gonna work for families – and make a whole lot of money and do really well over the holiday season.
CS: We hope it reaches families. We really do. It’s a crowded marketplace, but we’re excited.
JM: And this is a very mild spoiler – it’s already been mentioned online. In that first 35 minutes, there is an appearance by the late Stan Lee. It is a very good cameo. Did you have a chance to meet and work with Stan on this cameo?
CS: I did. It was truly one of the most extraordinary moments of my career as a producer. As I said, I was always a huge fan of Marvel and Spider-Man, and I was so looking forward to meeting him on this movie. He was so wonderful. We went to his offices. We recorded him. He loved the artwork. We showed him what the movie was going to look like, and he was so wonderful and gracious and really worked with us on the lines. He will be sorely, sorely missed, but he is an inspiration for every single person who worked on this movie. And I feel so lucky to have been able to meet him.
JM: Wow. And I think he has to be so proud of where Spider-Man has gone: the success with these live-action movies and now this animated film.
CS: The most important thing that we talked about with Stan that day was what he was able to contribute to the world and to the legacy of Spider-Man and superheroes, which is that anyone can be behind the mask. We all have that ability and that power. And that was something that Stan was so excited about that we were going to highlight in this movie.
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