SPIDER-MAN Animated Movie Will Be Helmed by THE LEGO MOVIE Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller

While one of five actors is on the verge of bringing a new live-action Spider-Man to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sony Pictures is working on bringing the webslinger to the big screen as an animated character too.

Sony announced on Wednesday that The Lego Movie directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller will helm an animated Spider-Man movie set to hit theaters on July 20, 2018.

LAS VEGAS, April 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- On July 20, 2018, Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, the directors of The Lego Movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and 21 and 22 Jump Street, are taking Spider-Man back to his graphic roots with the first-of-its-kind animated Spider-Man feature, it was announced today at CinemaCon by Tom Rothman, chairman of the Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group. The film will exist independently of the projects in the live-action Spider-Man universe, all of which are continuing.

Lord and Miller are masterminding the project, writing the treatment and producing the film.

As previously announced, Spider-Man will next appear in a live-action Marvel film from Marvel's Cinematic Universe (MCU). Sony Pictures will thereafter release the next installment of its $4 billion Spider-Man franchise, on July 28, 2017, a live-action film being produced by Kevin Feige at Marvel and Amy Pascal, who oversaw the franchise launch for the studio 13 years ago. The animated film from Lord and Miller, dated July 20, 2018, has Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Pascal also serving as producers.

Spider-Man, embraced all over the world, is the most successful franchise in the history of Sony Pictures, with the five films having taken in more than $4 billion worldwide.

Lord and Miller aren't new to animation, previously creating the TV show Clone High and directing two Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs movies. Between those franchises, The Lego Movie and the Jump Street films, the duo has more than proven than they can deliver comedy for moviegoers of all ages.

The idea of having two co-existing takes on one superhero isn't a new idea. Warner Bros. almost pulled this off with Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy in theaters at the same time as George Miller's Justice League movie. Had Miller's film not been canceled, moviegoers would have been able to see both Christian Bale and Armie Hammer play Batman at the same time.

Sony's announcement on Wednesday doesn't change the fact that a live-action Spider-Man will appear in Captain America: Civil War in 2016, a new Spider-Man movie in 2017 and future Marvel Cinematic Universe installments.