Phase 4 of the MCU is blasting off across the multiverse, and diversity within Marvel projects is reaching new heights. Thanks to Disney Plus, Marvel is showcasing tons of new characters and stories that, a few years ago, probably would have felt like a pipe dream to Marvel fans. But what about fan favorite Miles Morales? Will he ever join the MCU? If so, when?
Let’s take a look at what we know so far!
Who is Miles Morales?
Although Miles hasn’t appeared in the MCU yet, he made his first comics appearance way back in 2011 as part of the Ultimates series. In his comics debut, Miles is a teenager living in Brooklyn who loves his Uncle Aaron, despite Aaron having a sketchy, criminal background. Unbeknownst to Miles, Aaron robs Osborn Industries (that’s Norman Osborn’s, A.K.A. the Green Goblin’s, company), where a genetically modified spider crawls into his bag. While Miles is visiting Aaron, the spider bites him, giving him powers similar to the original Spider-Man, but with the addition of camouflage and the power to stun attackers.
Shortly after Miles gains his powers, Peter Parker is killed, and Miles decides to honor him by taking over his duties as Spider-Man.
Miles fans were treated to his big screen debut in 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse, an animated film in which Miles becomes Spider-Man and meets several other Spider-people from other universes, including Spider-Gwen, Spider-Ham, and an older, disillusioned Peter Parker. Together, the Spider-Peeps stop Kingpin from activating a multiverse-breaking collider that he thinks will bring back his lost wife and child, but will actually destroy New York City.
Into the Spider-Verse is a fantastic movie, but it’s not really considered part of the MCU. However, with the MCU introducing new characters right and left, and with the multiverse opening up all sorts of new possibilities, Miles could very well be on his way to Earth-616.
MCU Nods to Miles
The first clue we got to Miles’s existence in the MCU was in Spider-Man: Homecoming. In one scene, Peter is trying to track down the Chitauri weapons that Adrian Toomes, A.K.A. Vulture, is selling to local criminals, and tries to interrogate Aaron Davis. Aaron sees right through Peter, correctly intuiting that he’s just a kid, but then he says something really interesting. He mentions that he’s got a nephew living nearby, and he’s worried that all this alien technology is making the neighborhood less safe. At the end of the scene, he calls his nephew to tell him he’s going to be late because Peter shot webs all over his car. On the phone, Aaron calls him Miles.
The second hint of Miles is in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Peter 3 (that is, Andrew Garfield) confronts Jamie Foxx’s Electro face to face, and Electro exclaims that he thought Spider-Man was Black. It’s funny because it’s such an awkward moment (all Peter can think to do is apologize), but it’s also an unmistakable nod to Miles.
Now, neither of these moments is cut and dry proof that Miles is about to websling into the next live-action Spider-Man movie. However! Thanks to Homecoming, we know that he’s definitely there, even if he doesn’t have his powers yet. Plus, it’s not a stretch to think that the Electro comment is a way of priming audiences for Miles’s eventual appearance.
Rumors and Speculation
With Marvel Entertainment so perennially secretive, it doesn’t take much for even the most remote rumor to gain traction and spread like wildfire across the internet. With that said, here are the most recent tidbits of information that have been making their way around.
In February 2022, CBR posted an excerpt from an Esquire Middle East interview with Tom Holland, in which he clarified some comments he’d made earlier about not wanting to play Spider-Man after age 30. Here’s the quote:
What I basically was trying to say is that if I am 30, still playing Spider-Man, and I haven’t passed on the baton to a Miles Morales or a Spider-Woman or something more diverse, then I will have done something wrong in the sense of the duties I have to the character.
Marvel has been stepping up the diversity of its characters recently, with characters like Maya Lopez, Riri Williams, and Kamala Khan all entering the MCU, so Holland’s comments are well within the realm of possibility. Of course, maybe the fact that he feels free to drop Miles Morales’ name means that there aren’t any current plans, because otherwise, they’d be secret. Or maybe Tom is just blabbing again!
Along with Holland’s comments, a rumor recently surfaced that Will Smith’s son, Jaden, may be taking on the mantle. The rumor comes from an interview with Smith in PopTime, translated from Portuguese, and reported in BGR. However, Smith’s comment is so vague that it could apply to almost anything.
My son is preparing, physically and mentally, to get a place as one of the characters who will make history for the first time in the saga of a film that many already know and ask for.
Finally, it’s worth pointing out that Sony is building its Spider-Man universe with Venom, Morbius, and Kraven the Hunter. We know Spidey exists in that universe, but he hasn’t shown up yet. That could conceivably be an opening for Miles, but we just don’t know anything concrete.
Across the Spider-Verse
Luckily, Miles fans don’t have to wait for the MCU to get another dose of Miles. The sequel to Into the Spider-Verse is coming out on October 7. Called Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – Part 1, the movie will pick up where the first Spider-Verse movie left off. Here’s the plot summary from IMDB:
Miles Morales returns for the next chapter of the Oscar®-winning Spider-Verse saga, an epic adventure that will transport Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man across the Multiverse to join forces with Gwen Stacy and a new team of Spider-People to face off with a villain more powerful than anything they have ever encountered.
“Part 1” implies the existence of “Part 2,” so at least Miles fans will have plenty of Miles content while the gears of the MCU slowly grind.
(image: Sony)
