It's too early to bring Miles Morales to the MCU

Miles Morales may join the MCU at some point, but Peter Parker's Spider-Man still has a lot of work to do before then.

While rumors and theories continue to dominate Marvel fans, it's far too early for the upcoming yet-to-be-titled Spider-Man 4 movie to introduce the fan-favorite character Miles Morales into the MCU. Despite the character's recent surge in popularity with general audiences thanks to highly successful films and video games, Miles Morales simply doesn't fit the current stage of the MCU or Peter Parker's ongoing storyline. In fact, if Marvel Studios wants to do justice to the much-loved alternate Spider-Man, they'll be waiting for the perfect moment to introduce his character into the series.

Miles Morales originally appeared as part of the Marvel Comics Ultimate Universe, taking over the mantle of Spider-Man after Peter Parker's death. He later joined Marvel's mainline universe on Earth-616. The character most recently appeared in the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and its upcoming sequel, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, as well as Sony's recent PlayStation video game series, making Miles Morales a household name. Due to his elevated status in the superhero zeitgeist, it was inevitable that the character would one day be introduced into the MCU, likely as a replacement for Peter Parker's Spider-Man. The time of the franchise is over.

Peter Parker's MCU Story Is Just Starting

No doubt the prospect of Miles Morales joining the MCU at some point in the future makes sense. However, introducing him now would only step on the toes of Peter Parker's ongoing storyline. Spider-Man: Homeless replaces the origin story of the MCU's Peter Parker, whose early experiences as Spider-Man, including his spider bite and Uncle Ben's death, occurred during his time in Captain America Offscreen before debuting in: Civil War. However, the ending of "Homeless" saw Peter lose Aunt May, and shortly thereafter, he erased the world's memory of him, effectively restarting his arc in the MCU.

Nowhere to Return ends with a blank slate for Peter Parker, whose career as Spider-Man was just beginning. It was subsequently confirmed that Sony and Marvel Studios would extend their deal to include Tom Holland's web-thrower in another trilogy, confirming that the MCU intends to follow this version of the character for a long time to come. Still, in the early stages of his superhero career, Peter Parker has yet to experience many of the big Spider-Man storylines that would help establish Spider-Man as a A hero in his own right, not just a young Iron Man protégé.

The introduction of Miles Morales inevitably touches on Peter Parker's current thread, repeating the story beat his character just went through, a misguided effort to bring the new version of Spider-Man Xia rushed to the MCU. Miles Morales will only complicate Spider-Man 4, further exacerbating the MCU's aversion to letting Peter Parker venture alone without the help of other superheroes. Forcing two Spider-Man into a movie made just for one Spider-Man defeats both heroes, and the presence of another character greatly dilutes each character's arc.

Sony's Spider-Verse Could Delay Miles Morales's MCU Debut

Sony has had great success with the role of Miles Morales in its ongoing animated Spider-Man franchise, which may have caused the studio to delay the hero's MCU debut. The overwhelming response to Into the Spider-Verse prompted Sony to greenlight multiple follow-up films, including two direct sequels and several spinoff projects from various Spider-Man variants in the multiverse. While it's unlikely Miles will appear in all of these projects, he's still a central figure in Sony's hit series.

Due to the success of the Spider-Man series and Sony's sometimes With his tumultuous relationship with Marvel Studios, Miles Morales could be a long way from his MCU introduction. Spider-Man is Sony's most profitable IP to date, leading the studio to multiple superhero-centric franchises and cinematic universes. With the exception of Into the Universe and the Spider-Man: Homecoming trilogy, each of these franchises has struggled to achieve the critical and financial success Sony had hoped for.

So unless Disney offers a huge check or buys the film division outright like Fox did, Sony dilutes their most successful lead by lending it to Marvel Studios, just as they lent Peter Parker it's meaningless. Instead, it's more likely that the studio will wait until the end of the Into the Spider-Verse series to do so. While it may not be clear when, there are at least two mainline movies on the horizon, and they're proving to be at least as popular (if not more so) than Sony's live-action spinoffs.

When Should The MCU Introduce Miles Morales?

The MCU has several natural places where Miles Morales fits into the larger cinematic universe. Avengers: Secret Wars could easily bring Miles Morales loathing to Earth-616, skipping his origin story as a grown-up Spider-Man. However, Secret Wars will drop right into the middle of Tom Holland's second trilogy, and it might be too soon.

Another option for Miles' MCU debut is after Tom Holland's next Spider-Man film trilogy, either at the end of Spider-Man 6 or in an entirely new film trilogy. This would give Holland's character plenty of time to wrap up his story in the MCU and effectively pass the baton to his successor. This could also allow Holland's Spider-Man to transform into a mentor figure going forward, training Miles in a story similar to what's seen in Into the Alternate Universe.

The Into the Universe movie deals heavily with the concept of the multiverse, making it easy to imagine its version of Miles Morales finding himself on Earth-616. Of course, this requires the Spider-Man franchise to wrap up its ongoing story before moving its protagonists to an entirely different cinematic universe. However, an event like this would certainly be a fitting end to a beloved franchise, and might indeed be the perfect time to bring the character of Miles Morales to a live-action film.

How The MCU Could Introduce Miles Morales

As MCU fans wait patiently for Miles Morales' live-action debut, they Leaving it to discuss how he will be introduced, there are two main options to lead the discussion. One popular possibility is that an alternate reality version of Miles will appear in the MCU via a multiverse invasion, similar to the character's storyline from the 2015 Secret Wars comic event. Following the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the MCU has already begun the Invasion event, thus corroborating this theory. As the multiverse saga's finale, Avengers: Secret War could easily fulfill that hope, permanently transferring Miles from one universe to Earth-616.

The MCU might be better suited to introduce a whole new version of a character of its own, one that can be built from the ground up. Instead, Miles could just as easily have been introduced as a normal kid on Earth-616 bitten by a radioactive spider, especially if Marvel Studios waited until the end of Tom Holland's next trilogy to introduce him. This would be the easiest, and perhaps the most effective, way to introduce a character who deserves his full story in live-action, and while such an event might not happen as early as in Spider-Man 4, someday Meyer S Morales will be The Spider-Man of the MCU.