Sony’s Animated Spider-Man Movie Adds Mahershala Ali And Brian Tyree Henry

With all the talk of Sony’s live-action Spider-Man spinoff franchise, let’s not forget that the studio has an animated feature coming out in the near future, too. The currently untitled movie will act as the cinematic debut of Miles Morales, Peter’s successor as Spider-Man in the comics, as played by Dope actor Shameik Moore. The only other confirmed member of the cast to date was Liev Schreiber as a mystery villain, but now we know of two more stars who will be joining the project.

The Tracking Board is reporting that both Brian Tyree Henry and Mahershala Ali have signed up for the animated flick. Henry is probably best known for his regular role on Atlanta – alongside Spider-Man: Homecoming star Donald Glover, while Ali is widely recognized for his Oscar-winning performance in Moonlight. Superhero fans, though, will know him as crime boss Cottonmouth on Luke Cage. That makes two of the four cast members announced so far who have comic book credentials, as Schreiber previously played Wolverine’s nemesis Victor Creed in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (and was meant to reprise the role in Logan).

From what we understand, Henry is set to play Jefferson Davis, Miles’ detective dad, while Ali has been cast as Jefferson’s brother and Miles’ uncle, Aaron. Fans of the comics will know that Aaron is really the cat burglar known as the Prowler, and the chequered past and long-running feud with his brother leads to a lot of drama for Miles and his family.

The currently untitled Spider-Man movie is based off a screenplay by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who’ve just vacated the director’s chairs on the highly anticipated Han Solo spinoff. They developed the story along with Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch, and directors Bob Persichetti and Peter Ramsey will be behind the camera ahead of the film’s December 21st, 2018 release.