When it's released later this year, the animated Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse will be the first blockbuster to feature two different versions of the wall-crawler. The movie is set to center on Miles Morales, a Spider-Man from an alternate universe, but a big twist in the story is that he has the opportunity to study with the original webslinger, Peter Parker. In the film the characters are voiced by Shameik Moore and Jake Johnson, respectively, and I recently had the immense pleasure of watching their wonderful banter together in person:
Shameik Moore and Jake Johnson were down in San Diego, California for the city's annual comic book convention, and shortly before they took the stage in the famous Hall H they were awesome enough to stop by the CinemaBlend shooting suite. During our interview, I asked about the influence that Peter Parker has on Miles Morales, and it wound up leading to a spontaneous improv session. The two actors had the opportunity to do recording sessions together in the making of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, and they quickly fell back into that dynamic during our conversation.
Created in 2011, Miles Morales was originally introduced in Marvel Comics as part of the brand's Ultimate Universe (a universe parallel to the main Marvel universe a.k.a. Earth-616). At the age of 13 he is bitten by a genetically-enhanced spider very similar to the one that originally bit Peter Parker, and as a result he gains super powers - with some unique abilities including camouflage and a "venom strike." When the Peter Parker of the Ultimate Universe is killed, Miles winds up taking the mantle, though, like any young superhero, struggles to get and handle on things at the start.
It was in a 2012 miniseries called Spider-Men that Miles Morales got to meet Peter Parker from Earth-616... but that won't really be the version of Peter featured in Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. Instead, Jake Johnson has described his take as a 40-year-old out-of-shape version of the beloved web-head who doesn't quite have the same youthful exuberance for crime fighting that he once had. As you can imagine, that doesn't really put him in the best mental space when it comes to try and teaching a new Spider-Man, but it's also a recipe for comedy and drama.
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, which sports an amazing supporting cast that includes Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Liev Schreiber, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez, Lily Tomlin, Kimiko Glenn, John Mulaney, and Nicolas Cage, will be hitting theaters on December 14th. We're excited to learn a whole lot more about it in the coming weeks and months, so stay tuned for more updates here on CinemaBlend.
