Producer acknowledges it as an "independent story"
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| Image Credit: Marvel |
It has been officially revealed that the new Spider-Man animated film "Spider-Man: Friendly Neighborhood" is not part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) canon. Producer Brad Winderbaum, who is also a Marvel Studios executive, acknowledged this. This animated series depicts Peter Parker's journey to becoming a hero, and Norman Osborn, known for turning into the Green Goblin, appears as Peter's mentor. It follows an adventure never seen before and traces the character's roots.
According to Winderbaum, who appeared on the podcast "Phase Hero," the original plan was to position this work as a canon MCU story. "When we started the project, we thought, 'Okay, let's tell the story of a new Spider-Man, how can we make it happen within the MCU?' But we realized early on that that was restricting us," he said. The feature of this work is that it features a variety of characters that have never been seen in previous works. Norman's son Harry Osborn, villains Doctor Octopus, Unicorn, Chameleon, Scorpion, Speed Demon, Tarantula, Rhino, Butan... In addition, Daredevil and Doctor Strange also appear.
"(In the official MCU history) Spider-Man's nemesis and origin could not be used, and frankly, it was not interesting. We had to add a lot of restrictions to conform to the official history. So we immediately blew away the restrictions and rethought it. 'What is this work, what do we want to do? What do we want to portray about Spider-Man through this series?'" However, this work also has a lot of DNA that is very similar to the "MCU version of Spider-Man" played by Tom Holland. However, Winderbaum emphasized that these are not commonalities with the MCU version, but rather "all go back to Steve Ditko (Spider-Man's creator)."
"Like any comic, this is a standalone story. It's close to the larger continuity (of Spider-Man), but it really speaks to the legacy of this character." The animated series "Spider-Man: Friendly Neighborhood" will be exclusively distributed on Disney+ from Wednesday, January 29, 2025. It will consist of 10 episodes, two distributed at once for the first episode, and subsequent episodes distributed every Wednesday.