The Stan Lee cameo was also amazing — and heartbreaking. Did you get a chance to ever meet him?
Jake Johnson: Unfortunately, no. But I was glad that this movie happened, and that he was part of it before he passed away.
Shameik Moore: Yeah. We got his blessing.
I feel like Kevin Feige when he said, “I just thought he’d live forever.”
Jake Johnson: Well, his ideas will live forever.
Has anyone prepped you for some hardcore fan questions about Spider-Man?
Jake Johnson: No, those questions are for [producers] Phil Lord and Chris Miller, and for our directors. As the actors, it was our job to make the characters feel real.
Shameik Moore: That’s our job, to direct those questions to them.
Jake Johnson: People ask what research we did, and the truth of the matter is we trusted our team because they were the ones who came up with this idea, and wrote this idea, and love this idea. And all of the little moments that the fans get to go like, “Oh, they did that right!” They did do it right because they love this as much as the person at home who’s reading this who loves Spider-Man. They think they love him more than anything.
Phil Lord is your competition. Hearing him talk yesterday, I was like, “Oh yeah, that’s the guy. That’s the guy you want talking about it,” and so for us, which was really nice is that was the feeling. People ask if I felt pressure playing Peter Parker, and I didn’t because I knew I had Phil. I knew I had [directors] Peter [Ramsey], Bobby [Persichetti] and Rodney [Rothman] and I had these people who really loved it, and really knew it, and I just needed them to be happy.
I loved the interaction between Miles and his dad. Have either of you ever been embarrassed by your dad?
Shameik Moore: Yes. He was snoring really loud on a camp retreat, and every time we went he was … I was in an all-boys military school at the time, so when they have father-son retreats, and we’re going out into the woods and stuff, my dad is like that, and everybody was like, “Can you please have your dad to be quiet?” We were going for a whole weekend and it’s happening twice a year or something, and people are like, “Your dad this time?” Like, you know, it’s kind of embarrassing.
Who is your favorite Spider-Man? Besides Miles and Peter, of course.
Shameik Moore: I think my favorite is Gwen Stacy, so I’ll take that.
Jake Johnson: Then I’m going to go with the other one. Spider-Man Noir. Nic Cage… he was hilarious.
Will Miles pop up in the MCU, do you think? Maybe in a live-action film with Tom Holland as Spider-Man?
Shameik Moore: Oh, I don’t know about the time hop, but I sure hope Miles Morales meets Venom. That’s really where I want to end up. Live-action? Yeah, I think it just depends on when they do it.
Any other Avengers character you think Miles should team up with?
Shameik Moore: Miles should team up with … It might be dope to go ahead and get the Black Panther and Miles collaboration. I mean, it’s possible.
I wonder what the Avengers are like in your universe, though.
Jake Johnson: Oh, yeah that’s right, totally. That’d be funny if Black Panther was the same in every universe. Everybody else changes, or he’s always like, “Well, that’s the Black Panther right there.” But I can see Miles jumping around with the Black Panther.
What do you hope audiences will take from Spider-Verse?
Jake Johnson: We’ve been really excited about the critical response to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, that’s how it always starts, and you really want the critics to love something. And then you really want that early fans to start loving it. We really started hearing from people from early screenings, but you want the … First, you want the Comic-Con people love to it, and you want the true, true, true believers. Right now we’ve got that nice trick where everything’s fallen right, and we just hope it continues.
