Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is getting some reinforcements in the form of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. It’s the first Spider-Man animated series to be produced by Marvel Studios and has been heavily anticipated after the success of X-Men ’97. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man kicks off next week, and the people behind the scenes are offering new looks, including some of the many guest stars waiting in the wings. Along with classic Spider-Man villains, fans can also look forward to seeing heroes like Daredevil and Doctor Strange show up to help the wall-crawler learn the ropes of being a superhero.
Videos by ComicBook.com
A new featurette for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was released, offering insight into the upcoming Disney+ animated series. “It’s bringing a lot of things to the table that those other Spider-Man shows may not have been able to do,” head writer/executive producer Jeff Trammell says in the video. We then get looks at Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Scorpion, and Doctor Octopus, all set to make appearances. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man also promises to give different takes on classic characters. You can watch the video below.
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Does Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man take place in the MCU?
While it was presumed that Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it has since been confirmed that isn’t true. The creatives behind Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man have spoken about how not being tied to the MCU has allowed for more creative freedom in their storytelling. An example of this is the inclusion of characters like Nico Minoru and Norman Osborn, who have yet to officially appear in the MCU. And instead of Spider-Man being mentored by Iron Man, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man takes a detour into the multiverse by having Spidey be mentored by Norman Osborn.
Executive producer Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt explained to The Official Marvel Podcast that while the series begins in the MCU’s sacred timeline around the events of Civil War, it quickly veers into new territory.
“We’re starting at a point in the MCU where Civil War has happened, so the Sokovia Accords have been ratified so it’s modern day and then Peter gets to his first day at Midtown…then a thing happens which I’m going to try and dance around and there goes our branch. It’s a world where he never met Ned, he never met MJ.”
Marvel Television chief Brad Winderbaum explained previously that the transformation point that is so different occurs at a pivotal moment mirroring Captain America: Civil War.
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“Down to Peter getting the broken Blu-ray player from the trash and he walks into his department for the famous moment where Tony Stark is waiting for him to offer him the stark internship and take him to Berlin,” Winderbaum said. “But because of things that happen in the multiverse because of new, random occurrences, it’s not Tony Stark who’s waiting for him there. It’s Norman Osborn.”
“Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is amazing, to say the least,” Winderbaum told ComicBook, adding the show is “very much like a cut” from the classic comic books by co-creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
“It’s Peter Parker back in high school just trying to make it work, take care of his aunt, completely broke, and having to be a superhero,” Winderbaum said. “It’s so essentially Spider-Man. And what [series creator] Jeff Trammell did, which I think people are going to love, is he built this ensemble of characters around Peter that you fall in love with.”
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man airs January 29th on Disney+.