Shameik Moore on playing Miles Morales in the Spider-Verse movies

With Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse becoming one of the summer’s most popular films behind Barbie and Oppenheimer, and its Blu-ray and 4K release arriving on shelves next week, Miles Morales is more popular than ever. It’s no surprise how his voice actor Shameik Moore has become a fan-favourite for his portrayal of Miles in the two Spider-Verse films.

This past weekend at Fan Expo Canada in Toronto, Moore attended the convention and held a panel discussing his role in the two films. Through some fan questions, Moore revealed voicing Miles was a dream of his, even writing it down in his journal, and what the impact of both the character and his performance has meant to him and Spider-Man fans.

“I wrote in my journal ‘I am Miles Morales. I am Spider-Man!’ I wrote in my journal and it ended up coming to life in its own way,” Moore told his audience. “There are so many people that haven’t seen me onscreen. So many people have only heard my voice so as a voice actor, you didn’t really get all of me, you got a part me. On the other hand, just look at this. I’m literally travelling the world, I’m hearing all sorts different stories of how it impacted them. It didn’t really matter if they saw my face or not. I think what it’s like being a voice actor is that it’s reminded me it is bigger than me. You don’t have to see my face. It’s humbling and I’m grateful.”

As to what exactly inspired him to wish to play Miles someday, Moore explained it was seeing Miles appear in the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series for Disney XD. “I saw another version of Miles Morales on Disney XD, he popped up for 2 seconds, and I remember looking at that and feeling like someone drew my face. When I was 16 or 17, that’s what I looked like. I was like ‘someone looked at my face and drew it!'”

It was also luck, or simply putting his wish out into the universe, that ultimately got him the role. “When I wrote it in my journal, I was filming the movie Dope, which is the little independent film that changed my life, and when that came out and we went to Sundance everybody overseeing [Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse] was at Sundance, saw Dope and reached out. They wanted me to record on my iPhone some lines that they could use for their temp animation and here we are.”

Moore also took the time to tout Chris Miller and Phil Lord’s talents as the co-writers and producers of both Spider-Verse films, specifically in how they built off a quick, literal throw away moment in Into The Spider-Verse as the beginning of The Spot’s rivalry with Miles in Across The Spider-Verse.

“Let’s talk about the genius of the writers real quick,” Moore said. “I think that those guys, Chris and Phil, are very, very talented and I think the first time I saw [Into The Spider-Verse] and the word ‘bagel’ popped up I thought that was funny! That’s funny. It was a quick moment and for them to build on that and for all of us to know in the second film when he says ‘You hit me with a bagel!’ we were all like ‘That guy!’ Those guys are geniuses and they’re creating worlds in these movies.”

Miles Morales returns for the next chapter of the Oscar®-winning Spider-Verse saga, Spider-Man™: Across the Spider-Verse. After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must redefine what it means to be a hero so he can save the people he loves most.

Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.