Donald Glover Will Be In The New Spider-Man Film After Six Years Of Campaigning

Back in 2010, around the same time we were all freaking out over Inception and our lives were constantly soundtracked by an incessant loop of Glee covers, a social media campaign was born. Director Marc Webb was on the lookout for a new Spider-Man and the popular thinking was that it shouldn’t be another boring white guy.

“[Stan] Lee and [Steve] Ditko created a wonderfully strong character, one full of complexity and depth, who happens to be white,” wrote Marc Bernardin for i09. “In no way is Peter Parker defined by his whiteness in the same way that too many black characters are defined by their blackness… So why couldn’t Peter Parker be played by a black or a Hispanic actor?”

Fans picked up this idea and ran with it, eventually landing on the choice of Donald Glover. Both he and his Community character Troy seemed to be the perfect mix of friendly, relatable and nerdy to pull off the portrayal and, most importantly, he was on board with it. Glover retweeted messages of support under the hashtag #Donald4Spiderman and said he’d be keen for an audition. The resulting frenzy then made its way as an easter egg into Community as well as his 2010 stand-up special.

This didn’t really go anywhere. Though Stan Lee was behind the idea, Glover revealed he was never contacted for an audition. The role eventually went to Andrew Garfield (and it’s since been given to Tom Holland in the recently released Captain America: Civil War).

But now. Six years later. We have some news. It’s just been announced in an exclusive report from Deadline that Donald Glover will be joining the cast of next year’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. Though details are scarce, we do know it’s not in the role everyone was so keen on — the new film will see Holland returning in his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man.

At this point, the confirmed cast includes Michael Keaton who will star as The Vulture (which I guess he prepped pretty well for through Birdman), Marisa Tomei who will be back as Aunt May, and Zendaya, Michael Barbieri, Kenneth Choi and Tony Revolori who will comprise a group of Parker’s friends. Though there’s no word yet on where Glover will fit in all this, fans do have one very strong theory.

Donald Glover cast in Spiderman Homecoming!! If not Miles Morales….who? pic.twitter.com/JL4qQTzX55

— The Director's Cut (@_Directors_Cut) June 14, 2016

Miles Morales is a character who first appeared in the Marvel comics in 2011 — around a year after the initial controversy around Glover. He is a Spider-Man of African America/Puerto Rican descent and is reportedly inspired by both Glover and President Barack Obama (writers had sought to create more leading roles for people of colour in the Marvel universe ever since his win in 2008). Adding weight to this theory, Glover in fact voiced Morales in the Disney XD animated series Ultimate Spider-Man in 2012.

Others have already pointed out potential problems with this though. Namely: Glover is now 32 and likely too old to play the teenage character — especially opposite Tom Holland who is just 20 years old. The Hollywood Reporter suggest Glover could instead play Morales dad, or even other older characters like Horizon Labs founder Max Modell or Daily Bugle editor Robbie Robertson.

I guess we still have to wait a little longer to find out.