With Soul having scored numerous accolades, including two Golden Globes wins and currently being up for three Academy Awards, now Powers gets to work his magic on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2.
As for Justin K. Thompson, like Joaquin Dos Santos, he’s a Sony Pictures Animation alum, having worked as a production designer on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movies.
While Kemp Powers (whose writing credits include Star Trek: Discovery and One Night in Miami) initially joined Soul to work on the script, specifically fleshing out the character of Jamie Foxx’s Joe, he was eventually promoted to co-director, making him the first African-American to hold that title in Pixar history.