At 2015 CinemaCon, Sony Pictures Chairman Tom Rothman announced that Phil Lord and Chris Miller are developing an animated Spider-Man movie for Sony Pictures. Lord & Miller are masterminding the project, writing the treatment and producing the film.

Phil Lord and Chris Miller are best known for writing and directing Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and The Lego Movie, as well as directing the live-action comedy films 21 Jump Street and the sequel 22 Jump Street.

The Spider-Man animated movie will will exist independently of the projects in the live-action Spider-Man universe, all of which are continuing. However, no other details were provided about the animated movie, other than that it will be released right around a year after the live-action Spider-Man 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 & Miller has Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Pascal also serving as producers.

Sony Pictures announced a July 20, 2018 release date for the Spider-Man animated feature film.