00:00We took inspiration, of course, from the Brian Bendis and Sara Pacelli comics that sort of introduced Miles to the world.
00:06But beyond that, it was sort of a process of saying, Miles was introduced in 2011, this is 2018.
00:15What is it that's going to make him speak to kids and audiences in general right now?
00:20Because comic book fans know Miles really well.
00:23He's beloved by virtually all the comic fans who saw him sort of come up alongside Peter Parker as a new Spider-Man.
00:31But the movie-going audience at large really doesn't know that much about him, doesn't know that much about this whole idea of Spider-Verse.
00:39So we wanted to really make people fall in love with him and really make people sort of see that it doesn't matter who's behind the mask.
00:48That's kind of our tagline for the movie, just to do a little promotion there.
00:51But that the real essence of the character of Spider-Man and what's made him so enduring is that it's about your own character as a person.
01:01It's not the powers.
01:03It's not the incredible feats that you can do.
01:05It really is what you choose to do with those powers and how your outlook on the world shapes the actions that you take.
01:14So our picture of Miles and what we wanted to kind of hone in on was, what does it feel like to be that kid living now in a city like New York, to be undergoing challenges that any kid that age goes through, and then you have this whole other thing dropped in your lap?
01:32I don't know if this is true.
01:33Maybe you can confirm.
01:34But I read somewhere that the 2011 comic was, the character was in part inspired by Barack Obama.
01:41I think I've heard that about factoring into Bendis' thinking.
01:44I know at the time, of course, they were looking for ways to sort of revisit and freshen up a lot of classic characters.
01:50And I can only imagine that, you know, the impact that Obama had on really energizing the dreams and aspirations of everybody, but of course, in particular, people of color kind of seeing that kind of representation, you know, making such a huge impact all over the world.
02:07It sort of turned into, well, how can we bring that to some of these icons that we're so familiar with, and will they stand that test?
02:17It was really important to find an actor who could embody kind of the vulnerability, the wittiness, the charm that we wanted in Miles, because, you know, it all goes into that package of introducing a new version of a beloved character to the world.
02:31So you want them to be able to embrace him on his own terms, while at the same time feeling that, yeah, he's worthy to step into this role, which is kind of what our movie is all about.
02:42When we heard Shameik Moore's voice, he's like a big kid in a lot of ways.
02:47He's so charming.
02:48He's got this innocence.
02:50You know, he's like a 2018 kid, you know, he's a rapper.
02:55He's doing all kinds of show-busy stuff, but he's just got this core of sweetness that was kind of perfect for Miles.
03:05We'd listen to his voice, and it's kind of unusual for an animated performance.
03:10I mean, a lot of people probably would not have chosen him, because it's this really unique quality that he has.
03:17But we felt, with the vulnerability and the directness of that coming through, that putting that up against our animation was going to result in a really unique and pretty memorable performance.
03:30And we think it has.
03:31Kind of knocking on wood, I'm hoping the audience feels that.
03:35But we really fell in love with him as soon as we saw his voice-to-picture.
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