Miles Morales Confirmed For Lord And Miller’s Animated ‘Spider-Man’ Feature Film
Since his creation several years ago, Miles Morales has become of the biggest fan-favorite characters in recent years and those fans have been clamoring to see him break out of the comics and take to the screen. Today, Sony Pictures confirmed that Miles will be the lead character of the upcoming animated Spider-Man film written by The Lego Movie's Phil Lord and Chris Miller, but what does that mean for the character and how will they approach possible ties to the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
The confirmation came through today via two tweets from Sony Pictures, but there are still a lot of questions about what this film might be.
When the film was first announced, there were conflicting reports as to whether the animated movie would take place in continuity with the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. While some reports did indeed confirm that the animated Spider-Man would take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sony clarified that this may not be the case and the use of the word "stand-alone" in the announcement may be placed to calm any speculation, but we're going to speculate anyway because it presents a number of interesting opportunities, both good and bad.
First of all, Miles Morales was created in part due to the fan campaign to cast Donald Glover in The Amazing Spider-Man and Glover later voiced Miles in Ultimate Spider-Man. Interestingly, Donald Glover has an as-yet-unknown role in Spider-Man: Homecoming and while he may be too old to play Miles, there's an outside chance he could be Aaron Davis, Miles' uncle who is also the Ultimate Universe's incarnation of The Prowler.
If Marvel and Sony do want to bridge the live-action and animated pictures, would they consider casting for live-action with the upcoming Miles Morales film? It's a practice employed by The CW with characters such as Vixen and The Ray, but it might complicate things too much to do so. There's also the question of what role would Miles serve in a universe where Peter is alive and the same age; Peter would always come across as the "main" Spider-Man, which is what resulted in the current animated version of Miles taking the name "Kid Arachnid."
The tweet from Sony says the film tells Miles' story and will be stand-alone, and Miles' story truly begins with the death of Peter Parker. It's another question as to whether an animated Spider-Man film would kill of a Spider-Man in the opening moments or skip straight past it, but the responsibility of having Spider-Man powers and not using them to save Peter is Miles' own "Uncle Ben" moment and just as crucial to the character.
Ultimately, all we know is that Spider-Man is its writers, directors, lead character and release date. Anything could happen between now and Holiday 2018, but hopefully these are all questions the creative minds behind Spider-Man are all asking themselves too.