Games
Published December 8, 2020

Meet the Felines Behind Spider-Cat in ‘Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales’

The purrrfect companion for Miles.

While swinging across Marvel’s New York City, he also swung into our hearts. No, the answer to this isn’t Miles Morales — though he does rank pretty high — but rather Spider-Man the Cat. Or as he has become lovingly known on the internet, “Spider-Cat.”

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales features this new crime fighting feline who assists Miles on missions. After Miles saves Spider-Cat and returns him back to his owner, The Bodega Suit is unlocked, giving players the ability to actually take Spider-Cat with you through the city. And not only is Spider-Cat a fun accessory to have in Miles’ backpack, but he’s got his own cat finishers, too. While, obviously, cat finishers seem like a no brainer, they weren't always a part of the game.

“When I found out we had a cat wearing a Spider-Man mask in this game, I jokingly said that we should create cat finishers. Everyone chuckled and that is where it ended,” Boola Robello, a Senior Animator who worked on Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, along with Marvel’s Spider-Man, explained to Marvel.com. But, still thinking about it, Robello decided to try animating what a cat finisher might look like.

“I sent out a video of my animation to the team, and before I knew it our Creative Director Brian Horton was asking for a compressed video so he could run it by [Director of Production at] Marvel Games, Eric Monacelli,” Robello Continued. “After approval, we moved it onto my schedule and into official production. I coordinated with Senior Programmer Paul Hiley, and with his programming we worked out the technicalities to make the cat finisher a functional move for the game.”

spider-pup
Boola Robello: “For Halloween I got into costume as Insomniac Spider-Man and our pup wore a Spidey mask posing the question if Miles has a cat, does Peter have a dog?”

While Robello worked on the animation, Johannes Hammers stepped in to assist with the sound design for the cat finishers — and it all started with him just asking around if anyone had a cat. 

“I put out a ‘cat-casting-call’ to two of my fellow Insomniacs who I knew had cats. I knew [dialogue coordinator] Tyler Held had a cat. I asked him if he had any recordings and I ended up using those for the meow/purring sounds as Spider-Man the cat goes back into the backpack. [Tyler’s cat] Kevin had the perfect attitude of ‘Yep, just took care of those bad guys' and now it’s back into the safety of my backpack feeling. I had heard [Director, Audio Management] Karen Read’s] cat on zoom calls, and Juicy the cat had the perfect ‘I mean business’ meow that is in the ‘ground finisher.’”

If you’re scratching for more information about Spider-Cat, Marvel.com spoke to the cats (and their humans) about their involvement in the game. Here’s the who’s who and who you’ll hear and see meowing in the game.

HAWKE

hawke

Name: Hawke
Age: 6
Where the cat can be heard in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales: Kind of all over the place.
What the cat’s human worked on for Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales: Jeremie Voillot – Senior Manager of Sound Design (PD Sound).
Fun fact about the cat: He likes to go on walks with his humans like a dog!
How the cat has reacted to fame since the game’s release: Honestly, it really hasn’t changed him much, to his credit.
Cat’s favorite Spider-Man issue: #1 of course!
What other Marvel pet would the cat like to team up with for a dynamic duo? Zabu!
What the cat likes to do in their free time: Eat. He likes to eat a lot. He’s a bit chubby but he has been working on it.

KEVIN

kevin

Name: Kevin
Age: 2.5
Where the cat can be heard in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales: Kevin did the meow that Spider-Cat does when jumping back into the backpack after doing the finisher.
What the cat’s human worked on for Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales: Tyler Held – Dialogue Coordinator (PD Sound).
Fun fact about the cat: Kevin got his name after I found him in the snow at a family Christmas party. I opened my car door to leave and he decided to jump in. I didn’t want him to be Home Alone on Christmas.
How the cat has reacted to fame since the game’s release: Went straight to his head. He’s been demanding more food and wants to go buy a Catillac…
Cat’s favorite Spider-Man issue: Anything that involves Black Cat, he has a crush.
What other Marvel pet would the cat like to team up with for a dynamic duo? Bill the Lobster, although I am not sure of Kevin’s true motives there.
What the cat likes to do in their free time: Besides being a diva and trying to annoy me as much as possible, Kevin likes to lay around in awkward positions and play with his sister, Ivy.

KINAKO

kinako

Name: Kinako
Age: 3.5
Where the cat can be seen in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales: Kinako was an animation reference and an inspiration for cinematic cat animation.
What the cat’s human worked on for Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales: Kahye Hwang – Senior Animator.
Fun fact about the cat:  He can climb over any fence.
How the cat has reacted to fame since the game’s release: He’s been sleeping all day as usual.
What other Marvel pet would the cat like to team up with for a dynamic duo? Chewie.
What the cat likes to do in their free time: He enjoys going out for walks.

JUICY

juicy

Name: Juicy
Age: 1
Where the cat can be heard in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales: She is the voice of Spider-man the cat during the cat finishers.
What the cat’s human worked on for Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales: Karen Read – Director, Audio Management.
Fun fact about the cat: She’s incredibly vocal until, of course, you try to record her - then she gets terribly camera microphone-shy.
How the cat has reacted to fame since the game’s release: Juicy’s actually been making it very difficult to play Miles & the Remaster because she takes her role very seriously and plants herself in front of the TV, ready to jump into action.
Cat’s favorite Spider-Man issue: Avenging Spider-Man issue #5, where he teams up with Captain America.
What other Marvel pet would the cat like to team up with for a dynamic duo? I think Juicy & Goose (aka Chewie) could become BFF’s…
What the cat likes to do in their free time: Juicy still has the energy of a kitten so she spends half the day chasing and attacking everything in the house and the other half taking some hard naps to recover.

MIM

mim

Name: Mim
Age: 4
Where the cat can be heard in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales: Various vocalizations for cinematics.
What the cat’s human worked on for Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales:  Emile Mika, Supervising Sound Designer (Sony). Cinematic and in-game foley and sound design.
Fun fact about the cat: He loves to play fetch with his favorite toys!
How the cat has reacted to fame since the game’s release: He loves leveraging his new found fame for more treats!
Cat’s favorite Spider-Man issue: Amazing Spider-Man #3 (Doc Ock!).
What other Marvel pet would the cat like to team up with for a dynamic duo? Lockjaw.
What the cat likes to do in their free time: He loves to sunbathe on the patio (supervised, as he’s mostly an indoor cat!).

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales is now available both physically and digitally at the PlayStation Store.

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