Marvel Studios is set to introduce a new iteration of Peter Parker, later this month, with its animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Fans are eager to see what the new series is all about after a successful run of animated titles like What If…? and X-Men 97, among others. The trailer for the series has made it clear that it’s going to be set in a different timeline with the presence of characters like Norman Osborn and the absence of familiar faces. In a new conversation on The Official Marvel Podcast, executive producer Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt spoke at length about why Ned and MJ, who have stuck close to Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in the live-action movies, won’t appear in the animated series.
The upcoming series will start in the scared timeline (for the uninitiated, scared timeline is the single timeline created by Kang which Loki now, presides over). However, things will take a turn as the story essentially asks, what if Norman Osborn had been Spider-Man’s mentor instead of Iron Man? Vasquez-Eberhardt explains, “The conceit of it was, ‘What happened within that time in the MCU and what if things jagged one way or another with the Multiverse of it all?'” She affirms that there are a couple ways you can tell Peter Parker and Spider-Man’s story but it all “starts with Peter in his Freshman year.”
Peter Parker Doesn’t Go to Midtown in the Animated Series
She further cites the example of MCU’s Spider-Man movies where we meet Holland’s Peter as a sophomore, but for the animated series the makers pondered over “what happens when he’s just into school with all the newness that brings?” To elaborate Eberhardt went into the premise of the series explaining:
“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 very recognizable world but Peter doesn’t end up going to Midtown. It’s a world where he never met Ned, he never met MJ “
If Peter doesn’t go to Midtown, then of course, he won’t meet the characters we love from the live-action movies, but in this new universe he’ll run into “Nico [Minoru] is such a great fit for Peter. She’s very different from Ned and they fit so well together,” she revealed. Nico aka Sister Grimm, is a well-known comic book character and is the daughter of two dark wizards, who runs away from her family. She can bend magic and has teamed up with Spider-Man in the comics, which makes her a wonderful addition to the animated series.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man premieres January 29 on Disney+.
