Persichetti, Ramsey and Rothman joined over the next two years, with Moore and Schreiber cast in April 2017. Plans for an animated Spider-Man film by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were leaked in 2014 and announced in April 2015. Inspired by the Amazing Spider-Man story arc ' Spider-Verse', while also taking inspiration from the Ultimate Marvel comics 'The Death of Spider-Man' and Spider-Men that served as Miles Morales' debut, the film's story follows Miles as he becomes the new Spider-Man and joins other Spider-People from various parallel universes to save his universe from Kingpin. Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman (in Persichetti and Rothman's feature directorial debuts) from a screenplay by Phil Lord and Rothman, it stars Shameik Moore as Morales, alongside the voices of Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, Lily Tomlin, Luna Lauren Vélez, John Mulaney, Kimiko Glenn, Nicolas Cage, and Liev Schreiber. It was the first animated film in the Spider-Man franchise. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a 2018 American computer-animated superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character Miles Morales / Spider-Man, produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation in association with Marvel Entertainment, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing.