Credit: Sony Pictures TelevisionThe actor who replaced Chris Evans as Steve Rogers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has spoken out about his canceled television show.
Marvel entertainment has been prevalent in pop culture for decades. From the pages of comic books to the many animated and live-action TV shows and movies, the superhero behemoth has transcended generations and cemented itself as the leading player in the genre.
Many fans will be familiar with Kevin Feige’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, which began 15 years ago with Iron Man (2008). Jon Favreau’s movie starring Robert Downey Jr. in the title role paved the way for over 30 feature films and multiple TV shows to make their way to audiences over the years.
Now in its fifth Phase, the MCU has hit a few hurdles and now aims to course correct by shifting multiple release dates and stripping back on content produced for The Walt Disney Company’s streaming service, Disney+. This lines up with newly reinstated CEO Bob Iger’s plan to purge the streamer of content in a bid to steady costs.
Aside from the MCU, though, Marvel still lives on through other studios. Recently, Sony Pictures — who jointly own the MCU’s Spider-Man series starring Tom Holland (Peter Parker/Spider-Man) — distributed the sequel to the Academy Award-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), which opened to rapturous praise.
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The Sony Spider-Man Universe will next release Kraven the Hunter (2023), starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the eponymous Spider-Man villain. The first trailer of the R-rated movie dropped earlier this week.
It’s clear that Spider-Man storytelling isn’t going anywhere, and the Marvel Comics character that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created over six decades ago is as popular now as he was back then. In fact, ten years ago, one Spider-Man series was abruptly canceled after The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Studios.
The Spectacular Spider-Man animated series, co-created by Adelaide Productions and Marvel Entertainment, debuted in 2008 through Kids’ WB on The CW. Its second season premiered on Disney XD a year later, in 2009. Intended for a five-season project with an output of 65 total episodes. The contractual talks between Disney and Sony Pictures left The Spectacular Spider-Man in the dust, stopping before a third season could begin.
Led by Josh Keaton (Hercules) as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Lacey Chabert (Mean Girls) as Gwen Stacy, James Arnold Taylor (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) as Harry Osborn, and Vanessa Marshall (Star Wars Rebels) as Mary Jane Watson, The Spectacular Spider-Man voice cast featured many notable and celebrated actors and was critically acclaimed upon its release.
Now, Josh Keaton, the star who replaced Chris Evans as Steve Rogers in the MCU, has spoken out about the cancellation of the beloved animated television show.
“Greg [Weisman] had five seasons planned out,” Keaton said on social media (via The Direct). “One season was going to be a year from Peter’s life in high school, and the last season was going to be him graduating. And then he was going to do, like, movies adapting more of the mature-themed Spider-Man storylines. That was the plan…”
Keaton’s iteration of Spider-Man recently appeared in Across the Spider-Verse, bringing The Spectacular Spider-Man back into the present pop culture consciousness, and may act as a precursor to bringing back Keaton more full-time. Spider-Man has also been played by the likes of Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man), Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man), Tom Holland (Spider-Man: Homecoming), and Hudson Thames (Marvel’s What If…?) as the Peter Parker version, while Shameik Moore plays Miles Morales in the Spider-Verse movies.
And Spider-Man isn’t the only Marvel character Josh Keaton has voiced. He’s actually played one character in the MCU canon — Steve Rogers. In 2021, Marvel debuted the animated TV show, What If…?, created by A.C. Bradley. The series explored the various facets of the Multiverse, with each episode focusing on a different “what if?” moment. What If…? was notable in the way it brought back many of the actors that played characters in live-action.
But some were absent.
One of those actors was Chris Evans. Evans appeared early on in the MCU in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) before starring in multiple other movies, including the rest of his own trilogy — Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Captain America: Civil War (2016). He also was a leading protagonist in all four Avengers movies, The Avengers (2012), Avengers: The Age of Ultron (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
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In the first episode, directed by Bryan Andrews and written by A.C. Bradley, “What If… Captain Carter was the First Avenger?” asks what would happen if Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) took the supersoldier serum instead of Steve Rogers (Keaton). This then paved the way for Captain Carter’s live-action debut in Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).
It’s not strange that Marvel decided to recast Steve Rogers with Josh Keaton, as Avengers: Endgame pretty much solidified that Captain America, at least in the Steve Rogers incarnation, was done. The Avenger officially handed the mantle over to Sam Wilson, AKA Falcon (Anthony Mackie), who became the star-spangled hero in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier back in 2021. Captain America will return in the fourth movie, Captain America: Brave New World (2024), next year.
Would you like to see the return of The Spectacular Spider-Man? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!