Credit: Inside the MagicMarvel has announced a new Spider-Man prequel series is coming this December, just in time for Christmas.
Marvel Studios (and The Walt Disney Company as a whole) is in a bit of a tricky spot when it comes to Spider-Man. Due to the lack of foresight of Marvel Entertainment in the 1990s, the Spider-franchise is one of the few pieces of Marvel Comics IP that it does not entirely control, with Sony Pictures having the film rights to Peter Parker.
Marvel Studios and Sony have managed to keep a delicate truce over this subject (aided by the many, many billions of dollars in revenue it generates), but it makes things complicated for ol’ Webhead.
In the absence of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), the Marvel Cinematic Universe needs a new central character (an anchor being, one might even say), and the obvious choice is Spider-Man. He’s one of the most popular and recognizable comic book characters in history, and the Tom Holland films have a proven track record of destroying box office records.
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However, if Kevin Feige centers the entire franchise on Peter Parker, that means that Sony Pictures has a huge amount of leverage when contract negotiations come due. We’ve already seen how good Disney is about playing nice with others.
So that’s probably not going to happen and the MCU will need some mysterious new center, whether that means Robert Downey Jr. back in green as Doctor Doom or WandaVision spinoffs as far as the eye can see.
In the meantime, Spider-Man is still an important character, which is why Marvel Studios is rolling out new Spidey projects that don’t have quite the same pressure as the upcoming fourth Tom Holland movie.
One of those projects is Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, a Marvel Animation series starring Hudson Thames as the voice of Peter Parker. Thames previously voiced Parker in the What If…? series, and now he’s portraying yet another Variant; this time around, he’s playing a character who falls under the mentorship of Norman Osborn (Colman Domingo) rather than Iron Man/Tony Stark.
The series will also feature the voices of Eugene Byrd, Grace Song, Hugh Dancy, Kari Wahlgren, Zeno Robinson, Charlie Cox, and Paul F. Tompkins.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will land on Disney+ sometime this year, and to prep people for yet another Spider-Man, Marvel Comics is releasing a five-issue limited prequel series that will give potential viewers some background on how this Parker is different. The series is written by Christos Gage and drawn by Eric Gapstur, with covers by Leonardo Romero.
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Christos Gage said of the Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man prequel:
“I’ve had the privilege of writing a lot of Spider-Man’s adventures, both in comics and in the Insomniac video games, but one thing I’ve never gotten the chance to do is recount his earliest exploits and the exciting part about this book is it’s a brand new take on those formative times. While this is definitely Peter Parker, the Spidey we know and love, he’s got a new cast of supporting characters – including Nico Minoru, who you may know from Runaways – and some surprising twists!”
The new comic book series will be available in stores and online on December 11, just in time for Christmas. Marvel is increasingly tying in new comic book series with the MCU, so we won’t be all that surprised to find some interesting tidbits for the future of Spidey buried in there somewhere.
Do you think Spider-Man is the future of the MCU franchise?