The Tracking Board brings word that Oscar winner Mahershala Ali (Moonlight, Marvel’s Luke Cage) and Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta) have joined the cast of the animated Spider-Man movie from Sony. Henry will take on the role of Jefferson Davis, the father of Miles Morales who has a shady past but went clean after he started a family, while Ali will voice his brother and Miles’ uncle, Aaron Davis. Aaron Davis was the villain The Prowler in the pages of Ultimate Spider-Man as well.
They join a cast that includes Shameik Moore, star of The Get Down and Dope, voicing the titular Miles Morales, and Liev Schreiber as a mystery villain.
Created by Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli, Miles Morales was originally an inhabitant of Marvel’s Ultimate universe that existed between 2001 and 2015 as a parallel timeline reboot of Marvel continuity. Morales didn’t appear until Ultimate Fallout #4 in 2011, however, following the death of the Ultimate Peter Parker. The character has some of the same powers as the original Spider-Man, but he is also capable of briefly turning invisible and even a venom sting that can paralyze his foes. In the wake of Marvel’s 2015 Secret Wars event, Miles Morales was brought over to the central Marvel Universe (That’s the 616, true believers!) where he currently headlines Marvel’s adjectiveless Spider-Man title.
21 Jump Street and The LEGO Movie filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller are writing and producing the animated Spider-Man film, which is being directed by The Little Prince‘s Bob Persichetti and Rise of the Guardians‘ Peter Ramsey. Look for it to swing into theaters on December 21, 2018.
Before the animated feature premieres, Tom Holland will be putting on the Spider-Man again mask as Peter Parker in the live-action Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 7, 2017.
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
