The Best Pick for the MCU’s Miles Morales Throws His Hat in the Ring for Marvel Hero
If the box office numbers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day are anything to go by, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is going to continue to be one of the faces of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the foreseeable future. In wake of Brand New Day‘s record-breaking success, the filmmaker are already discussing where Spider-Man could pop up next and their hopes for Spider-Man 5. Holland has also been keeping one eye on the future, taking particular interest in a Spider-Man succession plan. On more than one occasion, he’s mentioned an interest in seeing Peter become a mentor to Miles Morales before formally passing the torch to the younger Spider-Man. Nothing has been confirmed on that front, but actors are throwing their hats into the ring for what would be a coveted role.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Juliano Valdi, who played a young Michael Jackson in this year’s biopic Michael, expressed his interest in joining the MCU. “I’m getting to the age where I really wanna play Miles Morales, so hopefully I can do that,” he said. “I’m not 15 yet, but I would love to hop in the MCU.”
When Will Miles Morales Join the MCU?
Seeing a young actor express a desire to join the highest-grossing franchise in Hollywood history isn’t anything new. That said, Valdi’s comments raise the question of when Marvel will look to introduce their version of Miles Morales, a character who has yet to make his live-action feature film debut. Since first appearing in the comics back in 2011, Miles’ profile has risen considerably thanks to adaptations such as the acclaimed animated Spider-Verse franchise and Insomniac’s popular series of Spider-Man video games. Fans would love to see the character swing into the MCU, but they’re going to have to wait a bit.
When addressing the possibility of Miles joining the MCU, Kevin Feige noted that it’s something that won’t happen until the Spider-Verse series has concluded. Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse is set to premiere in June 2027, wrapping up the trilogy. If that’s indeed the end of the Spider-Verse series, then the earliest Miles could appear in the MCU is 2028, but it’ll likely be at least a couple of years after that. Spider-Man 5 is all but a guarantee to happen, but that project hasn’t even been announced yet, meaning there’s still a lot of work to be done. One of the reasons why Brand New Day was so successful is because director Destin Daniel Cretton and Co. took advantage of the extended gap between Brand New Day and predecessor No Way Home (five years), making sure the script was ironed out before they started filming. Marvel and Sony will probably be hoping to retain that approach for the next film, so they aren’t going to rush Spider-Man 5 out the door.
And there’s no guarantee Miles will be in Spider-Man 5. That’ll depend on the direction the story takes, and there’s a case to be made that introducing Miles in the next sequel would be too soon. Yes, Holland has led four solo Spider-Man movies and has appeared in multiple MCU crossover events, but Brand New Day was really the first time he got to headline a street-level, character-driven Peter Parker story that brilliantly conveyed the core ethos of the character. If No Way Home was the culmination of what was essentially an origin trilogy, Brand New Day was when Holland really got to be the Spider-Man long-time Marvel fans are familiar with. Having him prepare to pass the baton to someone else in Spider-Man 5 would cut Holland’s time short when there’s still plenty of fertile narrative ground to cover (especially considering the teases involving Ned and MJ at the end of Brand New Day).
It’s more likely Miles won’t be brought in until at least Spider-Man 6 or beyond. Waiting a couple of movies would allow Holland to grow further into his role, eventually getting to a point where his Peter was truly ready to move on. Whenever Marvel decides to move forward with this, it’ll be interesting to see how the Peter/Miles dynamic is handled. Rather than cramming everything into a single film, perhaps their relationship could unfold over the course of multiple movies, with Peter gradually showing Miles the ropes before he feels Miles is ready to be Spider-Man on his own. Holland has specifically mentioned his work with Robert Downey Jr. as something he wants to emulate here, and Peter and Tony Stark got multiple films to build up their relationship. It’s only fair for the same thing to happen with Peter and Miles.
