Sony Pictures Animation’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse confirmed roles for Nicolas Cage and John Mulaney during its San Diego Comic-Con presentation Friday.
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Cage voices Spider-Man Noir, a darker take on Peter Parker raised during the Great Depression, who in the Marvel Comics becomes a gun-toting vigilante after being granted spider-like super powers. Mulaney will voice Spider-Ham, a.k.a. Peter Porker, a spider who was bitten by a radioactive May Parker and transformed into an anthropomorphic pig.
Also confirmed Friday was Kimiko Glenn (Orange is the New Black, Voltron) as the voice of Peni Parker, who dons the SP//dr suit as an armored superhero.
Cage’s confirmation comes after reports surfaced in early July the Ghost Rider actor webbed up a role in the animated project. Mulaney is a fan-favorite stand-up comedian and has appeared on Animals. and Saturday Night Live.
New footage screened at Comic-Con saw rookie superhero Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) crush on classmate Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) and come under the tutelage of an out-of-shape Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), who teaches the Brooklyn teen how to be Spider-Man. The pair of web-warriors run afoul of the hulking Kingpin (Liev Schreiber), a dragon-like Green Goblin, and the Lizard.
At CinemaCon in Las Vegas in April, Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman described the first big-screen animated Spider-Man movie as “a brand new take on the most iconic character of them all.”
“It’s a new visual and story universe where one of the most popular modern Spider-Man comic heroes, Miles Morales, can come to life at last,” Rothman said. “Fans have clamored for this young hero of color to have his own film, and these two guys figured out how to do it.”
“We are so excited about this movie, we’re so proud of it,” said screenwriter and producer Phil Lord (The LEGO Movie). “We’re thrilled to help bring the story of Miles Morales to the screen.”
He continued: “His story is a sensation in the comics, we loved it there, and we were so inspired to try to find a way to tell his story visually that would be commensurate with that. It’s a totally revolutionary style of animation as Tom was talking about, and it was too big of an opportunity for us to pass up.”
Added longtime collaborator Chris Miller, who produces and crafted the story on Spider-Verse with Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch, what makes Miles Morales a “really unique character” is “his Brooklyn upbringing… his culture,” Miller said.
“He’s half-Puerto Rican, half-African-American, he’s a product of a happy and alive family, he’s 13-years-old. All that tells the kind of hero he’s going to become, and we’re going to get to experience the Spider-Man legend through this new and exciting lens.”
Spider-Man Noir marks Cage’s second voice-acting role in an animated superhero movie for this year: he also voices Superman in Warner Bros.’ Teen Titans Go! To The Movies.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse swings into theaters December 14.
