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lord and Miller’s spider-sense is tingling into overdrive in spider-Man: into the spider-Verse.

We love Miles Morales,” says writer and producer Phil Lord, who appeared at the ComicCon 2018 panel for Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. “We thought that was an amazing way to tell a Spider-Man story. And when Sony came to us and said, ‘We want to do an animated Spider-Man movie,’ we said, ‘We’ll do it, but it has to be Miles.’ And then we got sorta carried away…”

Set in an alternate universe where original Spider-Man Peter Parker is dead and Miles Morales has acquired the same powers, he is shocked to meet a different Peter Parker from a parallel world, one who, as other spiderversions start appearing, isn’t too keen on helping Miles get to grips with his new abilities.

“It’s Peter Parker at 40. Peter Parker with a bad back, not sure if he still wants to be Spider-Man,” explains Jake Johnson, voice of Parker. “Miles needs him to be a mentor, but he doesn’t see himself as a teacher and he doesn’t want to be. But he sees something really special in this guy and it reminds him of what he loves about having those powers.”

Sony debuted some exciting footage at the panel too, which showed Miles thinking that his new powers are a result of puberty before getting his hand stuck to a fellow student’s hair, and a hilarious police car chase in which Miles is lumbered with an unconscious Parker.

There was also a first glimpse at the full extent of the Spider-Verse in question, which includes Gwen Stacey’s Spider-Gwen (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld), a particularly violent Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage), the anime-inspired Peni Parker and the pig-based version Spider-Ham.

With so many characters (the film also includes baddies Green Goblin and Prowler as well as main villain Kingpin, voiced by Liev Schreiber) and a lot of fun playing with different comic-book styles, this might be the closest anyone has got to turning the comic experience into a feature-length film format.

“From the very beginning we said, ‘How can we make a movie that’s like a completely unique cinematic experience,’” says Lord’s creative partner Chris Miller. “‘That feels like you’re walking into a 3D comic book?’ And to everybody’s credit, they were able to make it look like something you’ve never seen before, something that has to be seen on the big screen.”

directors BOB persichetti, peter ramsey, rodney rothman starring shameik moore, jake johnson, hailee steinfeld, mahershala ali (voices) eta 14 december