Miles Morales Will Headline 2018 Animated Spider-Man Film

After many months of rumors, it’s finally been confirmed that Miles Morales will indeed star in Sony’s animated Spider-Man movie set for next year.

In the comics, Morales hails from an alternate Marvel universe where at age 13 he took over for Peter Parker as that reality’s Spider-Man. Half black and half Puerto Rican, Morales is the first black character and second Latino to ever officially wear the Spidey costume.

Sony Pictures Animation President Kristine Belson confirmed the news today at a slate presentation for the studio. The Lego Movie directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller have been attached to executive-produce the picture for some time, and Lord himself wrote the screenplay. Lord delivered a pre-recorded message at the presentation:

There are a ton of amazing surprises in this movie. The animated nature of it allows us to go places where we’ve never gone before. The thing that inspires us most about Spider-Man is that anyone can wear that mask. I think that’s why the character is so popular. That underneath there you can be any race, creed or color. You can be any gender. And everybody can kind of project themselves into that hero and that’s the kind of movie we’re trying to make.

Bob Persichetti (The Little Prince) and Peter Ramsey (Rise of the Guardians) are slated to direct. While some test footage was privately shown at the presentation, no actual footage has been released. The movie is set to debut on Dec. 21, 2018.