Entertainment
The Star Wars Actor Who Inspired The Best Spider-Man
By Erika Hanson
| Published

Donald Glover, known best as Troy from Community, Lando from Star Wars, or Childish Gambino the musician, has earned his status as a multi-hyphenate celebrity. But what some fans may not know is that we can thank Glover for the existence of the greatest Spider-Man, Miles Morales. The person responsible for creating the Spider-Man variant drew his inspiration for the web-slinger from Donald Glover’s character in Community.
We Have Donald Glover To Thank For Miles Morales

Donald Glover spent much of his early Hollywood career campaigning to play Spider-Man. He referenced it in his songs and dressed in Spider-Man pajamas in the second season of Community. At that time, Hollywood didn’t seem too keen on hiring an African American to take on the Marvel role, but others, including the comic book writer who created Miles Morales, took notice. In fact, it was when Brian Michael Bendis saw the actor dressed in Spider-Man’s famous tights that he came up with the idea for the character.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man Supreme

Miles Morales made his Marvel debut in 2011’s Ultimate Spider-Man comics. Crafted to look similar to Donald Glover, the Brooklyn teen made history as the first prominent character of color to portray a spider-person. More than a decade later, Mile’s popularity has soared so high that many consider him to be the greatest Spider-Man, even over Peter Parker. This is largely thanks to the popularity of Sony’s animated Spider-Verse films, Into The Spider-Verse and Across The Spider-Verse.
At 41 years of age, it’s highly unlikely that we will ever see Donald Glover don the Spider-Man suit in the MCU. However, the Atlanta actor has held standout roles in Marvel projects, including once portraying Miles Morales.
Donald Glover And Marvel

For Peter Parker’s first feature-length entry into the MCU, Donald Glover took on the role of Aaron Davis in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. While it was just a small cameo, Marvel fans knew the significance since Aaron Davis is the name of Miles Morales’s Uncle, aka the villainous Prowler. For 2023’s Across the Spider-Verse, Glover surprised fans with a live-action cameo version of Davis, this time a variant of the character donning the full purple Prowler suit.
And while we never got to see Donald Glover portray Spider-Man in a movie role, the actor did voice Miles Morales for one episode of the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warrior.
A decade after showing interest in becoming everyone’s favorite friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, it would seem that studio execs regretted never giving the actor a chance. Imagine what could have happened in Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man movies if Donald Glover had been behind the suit (heck, we could have possibly gotten a complete trilogy out of it).
Even though Donald Glover can’t cross off playing Spider-Man in a Marvel movie, we’re certain he’s proud of his accomplishments over the years. After proving himself in Community, he went on to win multiple awards for his work not only starring in Atlanta, but also serving as the series creator, producer, and director. Next up, the actor will rejoin the galaxy far, far away, this time starring in and writing an upcoming Star Wars film.
Entertainment
Hurdle hints and answers for March 1, 2026
If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.
There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it’ll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.
An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.
If you find yourself stuck at any step of today’s Hurdle, don’t worry! We have you covered.
Hurdle Word 1 hint
Mixed metals.
Hurdle Word 1 answer
ALLOY
Hurdle Word 2 hint
A popular board game.
Mashable Top Stories
Hurdle Word 2 Answer
CHESS
Hurdle Word 3 hint
The edge of the beach.
Hurdle Word 3 answer
COAST
Hurdle Word 4 hint
Milk-based.
Hurdle Word 4 answer
DAIRY
Final Hurdle hint
A Spanish character.
Hurdle Word 5 answer
TILDE
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Entertainment
Moon phase today: What the Moon will look like on March 1
It’s a new month, and while the Moon may appear totally full, we’re still a couple of days away from this yet. But in the meantime, there’s still lots to spot on its surface.
What is today’s Moon phase?
As of Sunday, March 1, the Moon phase is Waxing Gibbous. According to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide, 94% of the Moon will be lit up tonight.
With just your naked eye, tonight you’ll be able to see the Mares Imbrium and Crisium, as well as the Tycho Crater. If you have binoculars hanging about, dust them off and pull them out to catch a glimpse of the Mares Nectaris and Frigoris, and the Endymion Crater. And proud telescope owners will see all this and more, including the Apollo 15 and 17 landing spots, and the Schiller Crater.
When is the next Full Moon?
The next Full Moon will be on March 3. The last Full Moon was on Feb. 1.
What are Moon phases?
According to NASA, the Moon takes about 29.5 days to orbit the Earth. Over the course of this period, it moves through eight recognisable phases, what we call the lunar cycle. While the same side of the Moon always faces us, the amount of its surface lit by the Sun changes as it continues along its path. The shifts in sunlight create the different appearances we see from Earth, ranging from a fully illuminated Moon to a thin sliver or near darkness. The eight phases are:
New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).
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Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).
First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.
Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.
Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.
Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)
Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.
Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.
Entertainment
Men are paying to have negative posts removed from Tea app
As reported by 404 Media, online service Tea App Green Flags will scrub negative posts from anonymous gossip app Tea and similar online forums where women post about negative experiences they’ve had with men they’ve dated.
According to 404 Media’s interview with Tea App Green Flags’ founder, simply identified as Jay, the company launched two years ago to tackle posts on the many Are We Dating the Same Guy Facebook groups. His focus has turned to Tea in the past year.
“We just want to take down posts about people who are being defamed,” Jay told 404 Media. “And when I say defamed, it means like, ‘this guy has a small penis,’ or ‘this guy smells.’ That doesn’t fit the mission statement of what the Tea app was for, which is to warn women against people who are harmful, who are abusive, who are cheaters.”
Tea App Green Flags’ site claims to have removed over 2,500 posts from the Tea App for over 759 clients. Most of the service’s clients are men, although Jay noted that occasionally the wives and girlfriends of men posted on the app will reach out.
Prospective Tea App Green Flags clients must provide their name, age, location, and photo to the service, as well links to specific posts targeting them. According to Tea App Green Flags’ FAQs, they can only remove posts with direct references to a client. On average, the site says, a Tea App “takedown campaign” will take 21 – 30 days. The lengths of other takedowns depend on the platform.
Price-wise, it costs $1.99 to report one Tea account and up to $79.99 to report 25 of them. The company also offers “24/7 Reputation Monitoring,” which costs $19.99 per month and alerts clients when they appear on Tea or Facebook.
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Jay would not share the details of the takedown process with 404 Media. Tea does have a free form for takedown requests on its website, and says that it will “only reply to takedown requests submitted via the takedown portal.”
Jay emphasized to 404 Media that Tea App Green Flags does not extend its services to people who have been accused of sexual assault multiple times on Tea, or who have been accused by one person using their real name and photo in a Facebook group.
“Sometimes we find along the process that there are pedophiles or people who actually did what they did, and they’re very bad,” Jay told 404 Media. “So we say, ‘we’re not doing this.’ We can’t take a rap for that. We’re ethical. We just want to take down people who are being defamed.”
Tea markets itself as presenting “dating safety tools that protect women.” In July 2025, it was the target of a large-scale cyberattack that exposed thousands of user images including drivers’ licenses, leaving users vulnerable to doxxing and harassment. These images were provided as verification for accounts, although the app itself is otherwise anonymous.
Jay claimed to 404 Media that Tea’s anonymity “causes a cesspool of defamation,” and that he would prefer if women shared their faces, even if they are speaking out against dangerous men who have done them harm.
While Tea is meant to be a women-only app, Tea App Green Flags is proof of men’s infiltration of these online dating spaces. (Tea itself was founded by a man: Sean Cook.)
“I have a Tea app account. I’m a dude,” Jay told 404 Media. “All my reps have Tea app accounts. They’re men.”
Mashable has reached out to Tea for further comment.
