- New series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man debuts on Disney+ on January 29
- Focuses on Peter’s Parker’s early days as Spider-Man
- Show has already had season 2 and 3 greenlit
Marvel fans are eagerly awaiting the new animated series from Disney+, called Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, but is it part of the MCU?
January 29 sees the first episodes of the hotly anticipated Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man drop. Following on the heels of X-Men 97 – which was a critical and fan hit last year – Marvel is bringing another animated favorite back.
The show has been in development since 2021 and was originally titled Spider-Man: Freshman Year, until the writers had a change of heart. Hudson Thames is the voice of Spidey.
Spider-Man origin story
This series focuses on the genesis of Spider-Man, and Peter Parker’s early days of taking on the guise of the web-slinger and becoming the hero we all know and love.
In this, Peter is trying to juggle his school studies with trying to be a crimefighter. This is very much a street-level Spidey – hence the title of the show.
The animation style has been designed to recreate the feel of the early comics from the 1960s. However, it is set in a modern-day world.
A trailer was released last year, which gives an indication of what we can expect:
Part of the MCU
But is this show part of the MCU? The answer is sort of. To explain: this is not the Spider-Man seen in the MCU movies played by Tom Holland. Nor is it any of the other cinematic incarnations of the 21st century played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.
This is a Spider-Man in an alternate universe. However, recent MCU films have focused on the multiverse and the theory of multiple universes existing, each with their own version of (in this case) Spidey.
By being in an alternate timeline, it allows the creative team behind it to explore familiar characters and themes but in new ways. One of the main differences between this and the main MCU Spider-Man is that this version is mentored by Norman Osborn, rather than Tony Stark.
However, plenty of familiar faces will crop up in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, including Harry Osborn and Doctor Octopus. Daredevil will also appear, and is voiced by Charlie Cox, who also plays the character in Daredevil: Born Again, which arrives on Disney+ in March.
The first episodes of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man drop on January 29 on Disney+. The remaining episodes will be released in groups, with the final ones dropping on February 19.
Seasons 2 and 3 have already been announced and are in development.
