miles morales

One of superhero project that has been floating under mos people’s radar is an animated Spider-Man movie in development at Sony. Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The LEGO Movie) the animated Spider-Man movie was announced by Tom Rothman, chairman of the Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group at last year’s Cinemacon.

When he announced the movie, Rothman made it clear that it would not tie into the live-action Spider-Man, who is now a member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The film will exist independently of the projects in the live-action Spider-Man universe, all of which are continuing.

So the animated Spider-Man would not be the same Spider-Man that Tom Holland is portraying in the live action movie. Now Hollywood Heroes is reporting that the animated Spider-Man will not be Peter Parker, but Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man instead.

After Peter Parker died in the Ultimate Universe, Miles Morales,  a half-black, half-Puerto Rican teen was bit by another radioactive spider that was developed in an attempt to recreate Parker’s powers. Taking up the mantle of Spider-Man, Morales became New York’s protector.

Writer Brian Michael Bendis was inspired to create the character om Morales by his own mixed-race family and the campaign to get Sony to cast African-American actor Donald Glover as Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man movie. Although it ultimately failed, the campaign culminated in Glover wearing Spider-an pajamas on an episode of Community.

Bendis said of Glover, “I saw him in the costume and thought, ‘I would like to read that book.’ So I was glad I was writing that book.”

Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso also cited the election of Barack Obama, the first African-American president as a catalyst for the creation of Morales.

“When we were planning Ultimatum, we realized that we were standing at the brink of America electing its first African-American President and we acknowledged that maybe it was time to take a good look at one of our icons,” he said.

After the events of Secret Wars, Morales has found himself in the mainstream Marvel Universe, Earth-616, and has joined the Avengers.