Last weekend the world was changed (in my opinion) when the best Spiderman film ever dropped: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse
History was made as we witnessed three Black Spider-people take the stage, none other than the voices of Shameik Moore, Daniel Kaluuya and Issa Rae.
We had the opportunity to sit down with Shameik and Daniel to discuss just how impactful and frankly life-changing the film is.
In 2018 history was made as we were introduced to the first Black Spiderman and now in 2023, we have three Black spider-people. Shameik, you're the first Black Spiderman and Daniel, you were part of Marvel's first Black superhero film. How does it feel to be part of history again?
Shameik: I'm all about Black futures. I know that's a little controversial, Black history is amazing, but we're in the present and look at where we are. We've come quite a way, we're playing variants of Spider-Man. That's amazing.
I think Spider-Man is the most loved superhero – or one of the most loved – characters of all time, so it's an honour to be a part of history.
Daniel: Same. I'm only really now taking in the gravity of it during this press tour, and I'm going 'Oh yeah, there isn't a lot of Black Spidermen like me.' But that's a great place to be in, that's the impact of the first one because now you feel it's normal. That's progress, not that it's exceptional; that it's normal.
Daniel, when you were first introduced I was hit with a wave of familiarity because I wasn’t expecting to be British! Do you feel a different level of comfort when you get to use your native accent?
Daniel: It felt good man. It's going back to the beginning, the first 10 years of my career was all English, you know what I mean? It was all London. So it kind of felt like a new instrument, I was like 'how do I do this?' But I also wanted it to feel global, but still specific and real to where I come from. It was a good challenge.
Shameik, Across the Spider-Verse was a lot more mature, and a lot more intense than the first film, what do you think audiences will take away from this one?
Shameik: That is bigger than Miles, this movie shows it's way bigger than Miles. Miles is a part of the Spider-Verse. I think the first movie was really highlighting the fact that Miles and Gwen and Spider-Ham and Spider-Noir existed. This time there are hundreds more and it's like if you get in the NBA, you're your neighbourhood's flyest basketball player.
What’s great about this franchise is that the possibilities are endless, we’ve now been introduced to 100s of Spider-People so it can really go on forever - if you were to build your ideal Spider World, what would it look like?
Daniel: Sunny, it would be hot. This is a kids' film so I won't go into too much detail about what, but I mean it will be populated if you understand what I'm saying.