For years, Spider-Man has been confined to motion pictures, and it has been nearly as long since he starred in a cartoon. The webhead returns to television with the new show Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (previously Spider-Man: Freshman Year). Still, Marvel has hesitated to promote it since Comic-Con two years ago. Thankfully, we now have a comprehensive preview of the new series.
Friendly Neighborhood appears to have all you need if you’ve seen the MCU Spider-Man films and thought he should have some smaller adventures. This version of Peter Parker (Hudson Thames) is just beginning his Spider-Man career in an alternate reality. Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Nico Minoru (Grace Song), and Harry Osborn (Zeno Robinson) are his new group of incredible mates.
Watch it below:
Additionally, according to the teaser, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is produced by the company that made X-Men ’97. Although it comes from Marvel Studios, it isn’t from Beau DeMayo, the former showrunner of X-Men ’97, who recently criticized Marvel’s What-If? Season 3.
The animation is a nod to the style of the comics from the 50s and 60s. The cover of the comic is a reference to the classic Spider-Man cover from 1967. Parker is carrying Harry Osborn through the sky. Many have noticed that the wealthy industrialist is no longer white but African-American.
This makes sense since showrunner/creator Jeff Trammell is Black. He’s a writer and actor, known for Craig of the Creek (2017) and Amphibia (2019). Years ago Sony decreed that Peter Parker must always be white, but Trammell decided to add some diversity to another main character.
The most significant alteration of all? In place of Tony Stark, Norman Osborn (Colman Domingo), Peter’s surrogate father, chooses to help him realize his full heroic potential by giving him some new costumes to swing in.
Apart from that, we are in default Spider-Man cartoon mode: Peter juggles his roles as a high school student and a neighborhood vigilante who battles villains. On January 29, 2025, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will debut on Disney+, allowing us to explore what more this new series offers.
What do you think of the trailer and the show?
