At first, Sony tried to launch a Spider-Man franchise full of sequels and spinoffs. However, The Amazing Spider-Man 2‘s less than spectacular box office performance forced the studio to pull the plug. Since then they’ve revamped those plans by sharing the Wallcrawler with Marvel Studios, creating a separate universe with his supporting characters, and announced an animated spinoff film.

Now we know who will be voicing the lead role in that yet-to-be-titled animated Spider-Man film. It has been confirmed that Dope star Shameik Moore will voice Miles Morales. More on the story below.

The casting news comes to us via The Hollywood Reporter, who says Moore will be joined by Liev Schreiber voicing an unnamed villain.

Most know that Peter Parker is the original Spider-Man, but he has since shared that name with Miles Morales, his Ultimates counterpart, a half-African America half-Latino teenager. Plot details are being kept a secret for now, but the gist of it will focus on Morales juggling his superhero life with his high school life. We can get a sense of the film’s tone since Phil Lord and Chris Miller wrote the project. Their credits include the Jump Street films, The LEGO Movie, and the upcoming Han Solo spinoff.

The Little Prince scribe Bob Persichetti will direct, while Peter Ramsey (Rise of the Guardians) will co-direct.

Moore isn’t a household name, and has only starred in a handful of projects. He got his first big break in Dope. He currently can be seen in Netflix’s series The Get Down from Baz Luhrmann.

Morales was first introduced into Marvel Comics in 2011. A creation of Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli, the character is part of the Ultimates series, an alternate universe to the main Marvel Comics. He shares similar powers to that of his original counterpart, but unlike Parker, Morales can camouflage to his surroundings and use a “venom sting” to paralyze his opponents. In the previous animated series, he was voiced by Donald Glover, who back in the day did a joking nod when his character woke up in Spider-Man pajamas.

The untitled animated Spider-Man film is scheduled to hit theaters on December 21, 2018.

[Source: THR]