BOB PERSICHETTI: Oh man, day one.
Day one was three years ago, this week.
December 2015, was day one.
It was giant aspirations, you know?
Carte blanche in coming up with something different.
Because that was the big hook for I think all of us.
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This is not only just a Peter Parker story.
He’s a supporting role in it, but it’s a story about a contemporary kid from Brooklyn.
How would you make that look?
Image via Sony Pictures
So yeah, the cuffs were off, and it was just like “Create something.”
It took about a year and a half to get to where we ended up.
If you look at them now, it’s possible for you to see the difference.
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We had a lot left to learn.
What’s the relationship like with the script itself?
PETER RAMSEY: It’s an insanely organic process.
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See where we are, then it’ll bounce back to pages.
Now we will do exactly what’s on the page and nothing more."
It was much more alive than that.
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ROTHMAN: Some ideas start in the script.
And that makes us think of this other idea.
What were your discussions like deciding who you wanted your Miles Morales to be?
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PERSICHETTI: A kid from Brooklyn, first and foremost.
He’s meant to be your average teenager from Brooklyn with a loving mom and dad.
That’s the big difference between him and Peter Parker is he still has both his parents.
Making sure that he was challenged and grew and had like a radioactive puberty [laughs].
ROTHMAN: Studying [Brian Michael Bendis'] comic books, Miles is a very endearing character.
He’s very sweet.
He isn’t exactly nerdy like Peter Parker.
He’s not the coolest kid around, but he has his own personality.
A lot goes unsaid with Miles, that’s something we definitely were inspired by.
He seems to have a rich internal life.
He could show us.
RAMSEY: Well it’s a big reason we cast Shameik.
It let you into that character like there’s no wall between you and him.
It doesn’t sound stock, which is something we were always trying to avoid.
PERSICHETTI: We actively tried to not cast him, only meaning that we found him really early on.
We’d seenDopeand were like like “ooh.”
He was doingThe Get Downin New York and we shot him some script pages.
It’s got a real idiosyncratic, unique quality to it.
Then we spent like 6 to 8 more months, we did open casting call.
He was the best version of Miles.
Is there anything you’re particularly happy made it in?
ROTHMAN: Stan Lee has more than one cameo in the movie.
That’s Stan again.
On his way home from work.
But then I will say, there are many, many train scenes.
If you just pause, he’s in a lot of them.
That guy is all over New York.
He’s a busy man.
Were these always the names you wanted in the movie or did they change over time?
RAMSEY: Those guys were always there, from Phil’s initial treatment.
And Norman Osborn is actually a gigantic green goblin in this movie.
RAMSEY: That actually comes from theUltimatecomics.
PERSICHETTI: More goblin than man.
I think it was so cool-looking that I was like “Oh okay I’m fine with that.”
ROTHMAN: That’s what we’re all hoping.
PERSICHETTI: Cool trumps a lot.
Sort of the same question for the names like Spider-Man: Noir, Spider-Ham, Peni Parker.
Were those always the versions of Spider-Man you planned to have show up in the film?
ROTHMAN: More or less that was always the team from Phil’s earliest treatment.
RAMSEY: As different as possible from each other.
How did you want to make it clear that this is two diverging paths of the same life?
Basically at the top of his game.
It was just confidence, charm, the ideal, perfect superhero.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse premieres on December 14.
