A Tangled Web: See Donald Glover’s Animated Spider-Man in Action
Donald Glover has already established himself as an actor, a comedian, a writer and a rapper, recording as Childish Gambino. Now he’s adding another line to his résumé: Spider-Man. Check out a clip of your friendly neighborhood super-actor in action above.
Glover will lend his voice to Marvel’s webslinger in an upcoming episode of the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warriors. “That’s the great part about the Spider-Man costume: He can be anybody,” Glover said in a statement. “Spider-Man could be a girl. Spider-Man could be an old man. You don’t know. So I just tried to be as me as possible, because you’re always just going to bring it back to yourself when you watch the show.”
Back when the recent reboot of the Spider-Man film series was just in the planning stages, a viral campaign fueled by fervent Community fans rallied for Glover at least to audition for the superhero role, since Glover donned the Spidey suit briefly on the NBC (now Yahoo!) comedy.
Although Andrew Garfield was ultimately cast as Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man, the grassroots movement inspired Marvel Comics to create a 13-year-old African-American character named Miles Morales, who assumes the Spider-Man role in the Ultimate Spider-Man alternative universe where Peter Parker has been killed. Comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis has admitted basing Morales on Glover, so it was only natural that Childish Gambino would portray Morales in the cartoon.
“I don’t think it’s hit me necessarily yet how big of a deal that is. I’m very grateful for that, and it’s cool to read the comic now,” Glover told USA Today of being cast as Miles Morales. “I never liked Superman that much, because I was like, ‘Yo, this dude can’t die. It’s too easy.’ Batman is pretty fly. He’s a close second, just because he doesn’t really have powers. He’s just a justice-driven vigilante. Spider-Man is the best because you just don’t know who he is, and he’s funny and he’s poor. I understand Spider-Man a lot on that level. He’s just trying to make it.”
Glover admitted to USA Today that he’s still hopeful to wear the blue-and-red costume in a live-action Spider-Man project someday, but just supplying a voice to the superhero works for now. Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warriors‘ season premiere will air Sunday, August 31st at 9 a.m. EST.