Of the many delights of Captain America: Civil War, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man was arguably the peak. The inclusion of the legendary web-slinger within the Marvel Cinematic Universe represented a bit of a coup for Marvel, having worked out a deal with Sony to share the rights to the character so that the fan favorite could finally interact with Iron Man, Captain America, and the rest of the Avengers team. Prior to Holland’s official casting announcement, however, the rumor mill swirled and churned over the prospect that the MCU’s Spider-Man might not, in fact, be the Peter Parker version of the character.

The idea made sense, of course. Peter Parker’s story had been explored to death in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, and again in the two Amazing Spider-Man movies starring Andrew Garfield (The Social Network). There was certainly room for the inclusion of Miles Morales, the half black, half Puerto Rican teenager who took over the mantel of Spider-Man in the Marvel Comics Universe following the death of Peter Parker in 2011. With the calls for an increase of diversity in comic book movies, it seemed like the time was right for a new version of Spider-Man for fans to fall in love with. But no; once again, we got another Peter Parker. As great as Holland was as Spider-Man, and probably will be in the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming, it certainly felt like a missed opportunity, leaving many to wonder if we’d ever see Miles Morales in a movie of his own. According to a new rumor, we just might.

Heroic Hollywood’s Umberto “El Mayimbe” Gonzalez is reporting that Miles Morales will be the Spider-Man featured in the upcoming animated film that is set to reach theaters in 2018. El Mayimbe (whose news scoop track record is admittedly hit/miss) further notes that a quote from Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman (see below) from last year’s CinemaCon had already suggested that the animated movie might focus on a web-slinger other than Peter Parker.

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

It does make sense for Sony to want to differentiate its animated Spider-Man from the MCU version of the character, and Miles Morales would certainly be the best way to go about doing this. After all, the general reaction prior to the Holland announcement seemed to indicate that Miles would’ve been an acceptable Spider-Man to appear in Civil War, and the calls for greater diversity in characters/casting in the superhero film genre in general are still ringing loudly from many corners of the superhero-loving fan community.

The animated Spider-Man movie is being co-written and produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The LEGO Movie), but it doesn’t have an official director, synopsis, nor even a title just yet (beyond “Animated Spider-Man”). This makes it tricky to speculate what we might be in store for when the film sees the light of day. Miles Morales does offer a good opportunity for Sony to give fans a different version of Spider-Man on the big screen - one whose story hasn’t been examined in movie form three times before.

It’s also possible that Sony would rather ride Marvel’s wave and present an alternative version of Peter Parker; its guess work and speculation at this point, anyway. Still, Miles Morales is as good a guess as any, and it’s about time for the character to make his movie debut, even just animated form. The character made his debut in Ultimate Spider-Man, which exists outside of the main Marvel Comics continuity, to great critical and fan acclaim - quickly earning him a readership, despite Miles not being Peter Parker. The fanbase alone is more than enough reason to give Miles the chance to shine, and it would be the best way to differentiate the animated Spider-Man movie.

The Animated Spider-Man Movie (official titled TBA) will open in U.S. theaters on December 21st, 2018.

Source: Heroic Hollywood