Producers say Miles Morales will never be cinematic Spider-Man
By Daniel Wood
Andrew Garfield stirred up a hornet’s nest worth of internet buzz when he suggested that when it comes time to hang up his Spidey-boots that he should be succeeded by Miles Morales, the first African American Spider-Man and current holder of the Ultimate Spider-Man mantle in the comic books.
Arguments about diversity in Marvel films, the possibility of someone othat than Peter Parker being Spider-Man and just about anything else that could be related to the issue began to arise with people suggesting that Spider-Man can’t be considered a true hero or underdog anymore.
However the idea that Miles Morales, or indeed one of the other men who have been Spider-Man, such as Miguel O’Hara or Ben Reilly, could be introduced into the Spider-Man movies has been rather coldly and completely shut-down by Spider-Man producers Matt Tolmach and Avi Arad in a recent interview with the Mary Sue.
They were asked “Are Miles Morales (“Ultimate Spider-Man”), Ben Reilly (clone Spider-Man) or Miguel O’Hara (“Spider-Man 2099″) on the table? If you want a Spider-Man movie every year why not bring in some of the other variations?
To which Tolmach replied with a resounding “No.” And Arad replied with “No. The one thing you cannot do, when you have a phenomena that has stood the test of time, you have to be true to the real character inside – who is Peter Parker? What are the biggest effects on his life? Then you can draw in time, and you can consider today’s world in many ways. But to have multiple ones… I don’t know if you remember, but Marvel tried it. And it was almost the end of Spider-Man.”
Personally I find this complete refusal to even consider it disappointing and despite enjoying the two Amazing Spider-Man 2 films I feel that this is the biggest argument for Sony to lose the rights to the Spider-Man character to Marvel.
There is some silver-lining though as pictures of a Miles Morales Ultimate Spider-Man costume concept art have been leaked online, and clearly show that Sony have explored the possibility a little bit, even if they do seem to have written the idea off now.
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