After seeing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in theaters, two fans by the names of James Drake Coleman and Lexter Santana decided to pay tribute by recreating the opening scene. Lexter Santana plays the live-action Miles Morales in this reenactment and does a great job singing along to “Sunflower” just like Shameik Moore does in the animation, being able to express Miles’ artistic ability on camera, and “promptly” getting ready for school.

James Drake Coleman and Lexter Santana recreate the opening of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

We reached out to Lexter and he was more than happy to share his thoughts and feelings on the Spider-Verse film:

There is probably not enough dimensional fiber to express how amazing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is to me. Since the moment the film was announced, every time I hear its name, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, I smile. Every time I listen to Post Malone’s “Sunflower” I smile. I may also be guilty of hitting a few off-key notes while singing along, but hey, I’m #onthatmiles. This is all to say that seeing Miles Morales and his Spider people/pig counterparts on the big screen inspired my friend James and I so much that we decided to create a live-action trailer based from the film.

Watching Spider-Man: Into The Spider Verse , I actually felt like I was watching a comic book come to life. Every calculated detail from the Benday dots on the image, to the dialogue bubbles, to the vibrant colors, was spot on. If one were to pay close attention, they could even see shot for shot frames from the comic books that serve as the basis for the film. It’s obvious that an absurd amount of hard work went into the creation of this project. Shameik Moore made me truly believe that that’s what Miles would sound like if he were in the real world.

When making the live-action Miles trailer, James and I wanted to mimic the unique breath of life that Moore gave to Miles Morales. I remember James telling me at the theater, “We should remake the opening scene with you as Miles.” We wanted our tribute to Moore’s voice and vision of Miles to look and sound as much as the animated film as possible. One of the things I did to accomplish this was to draw all the name tags in the opening shot by hand.

A short time after James and I dropped our live-action video, we got word that the film was, deservedly, nominated for a number of awards! It was definitely not a surprise to learn that Into the Spider-Verse won the Golden Globe award for Best Animated Feature Film! Previous to this was Sony’s first time winning the top award for an animated film at the 46th Annual Annie Awards. This is a success in its own right, not to mention the 6 other categories that they were nominated for. Soon after, Spider-Man: Into The Spider Verse takes home the award for Best Animated Feature Film at the 76th Golden Globe Awards. The critics were, and are still raving about it. Apparently, James and I weren’t the only ones who could appreciate the artistic marvel that this film has proven to be. That’s a Win for Miles!

Aside from being a well-crafted powerhouse among animated films, the Spider-Verse story is really about making people feel like they too, could be a hero. In Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, we see a range of heroes with the same connection to spider powers that we are familiar with through Spider Man . Similar to people of the real world, each web-head is different in the best of ways and they are brought together to fight a terrible danger that could destroy life as they know it. Even though the characters are different, they find strength in their similarities. Throughout the film, Miles Morales and his friends face certain trials that allow them to learn about each other. In the end, you can tell that it was through their differences, and because they took the time to learn from each other, that they were able to succeed. Each person’s different abilities complemented the others’ in ways that ultimately lead to them saving everyone. Sometimes, all it takes to save the day is a friend.

Lucky for me, I have friends and family just as cool, if not cooler than Miles’. It’s not anything new that I love hero comics, but had it not been for James, I might not have made the live-action Miles Morales trailer. James pushing me was exactly what I needed to get things going. He took care of the entire video AND provided the awesome superhero paintings that you see in our Miles Morales trailer. We may not have a Golden Globe like Miles yet, but with all the support and positive attention we’ve been getting, we sure hope our video will inspire people to go out and leave their mark. Embrace the things that make you different… Even if different is scary at first.