Credit: Marvel StudiosMarvel Studios has reportedly axed two upcoming projects from its release slate, instead opting to focus on Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
While critics like to focus on Marvel Cinematic Universe’s recent flops (which have forced the studio to reconsider and revamp some upcoming films and TV shows), the studio has still had a string of successful releases since Avengers: Endgame (2019).
Most notably, the studio has crossed the $1 billion threshold three times in the past five years. This includes July’s Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), plus two installments in its Spider-Man franchise: Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).
The latter was a real highlight for Marvel fans, acting as the MCU’s first major step into the Multiverse (at least on the big screen). While Tom Holland returned as Peter Parker, he was joined by his two predecessors in the role: Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. This team-up proved extremely profitable, raking in a whopping $1.9 billion at the box office.
Unsurprisingly, the MCU has plenty more Spider-Man adventures to come. A fourth film in the franchise has been teased for a while. Holland has stressed that his return would need to “do justice to the character,” while his real-life girlfriend, Zendaya, is also expected to reprise her role of Michelle Jones, AKA MJ, who forgot about Peter Parker’s existence at the end of No Way Home.
In recent weeks, talks have heated up around the film’s prospects, with the director of the past three films, Jon Watts, reportedly set to be replaced by Destin Daniel Cretton, director of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021).
But before we get to Spider-Man 4, we have one other Spider-Man project on the way. The animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is set to debut on Disney+ later this year. Set in an alternate timeline to the primary MCU, it will follow Peter Parker (voiced by his What If…? actor Hudson Thames, not Holland) in a world where Norman Osborn serves as his mentor, not Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.).
This was supposed to be one of three animated Marvel projects heading for Disney+ this year. However, as per industry insider Alex Perez of The Cosmic Circus, Marvel has axed this year’s release of the animated Black Panther series, Eyes of Wakanda. Marvel Zombies – a continuation of an episode of What If…? – is also delayed.
Both shows are now reportedly expected to air in 2025. Meanwhile, the final season of What If…? is also yet to receive a premiere date.
Fortunately, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man sounds promising enough to keep us occupied in the meantime.
The show – which will use an animation style similar to the art of the early “The Amazing Spider-Man” comic books and launch its own prequel comic series – is set to introduce other classic characters that we’re yet to see in the MCU, such as Harry Osborn, Norman Osborn’s son (and Peter Parker’s best friend turned nemesis once he becomes Green Goblin), and Lonnie Lincoln, the alias for the supervillain Tombstone.
It will also see the return of Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock, the blind lawyer from Hell’s Kitchen who is also known as the masked vigilante. The character is set to front his own Disney+ series, Daredevil: Born Again, soon, having crossed over from Netflix’s Marvel universe to the MCU in No Way Home.
What MCU film or TV show are you most excited to see?