Is Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Canon to the MCU?

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 20, 2024 9 Views 7 Min Read
Is Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Canon to the MCU?

Summary

  • Spider-Man’s new animated series explores his roots in a unique comic-book-style animated format.
  • The show features iconic villains and characters like Norman Osborn and Doctor Strange.
  • The series is not canon to the MCU timeline, allowing for creative freedom from the confines of the main continuity.



Spider-Man remains one of Marvel’s most popular superheroes. The character is plastered over video games and landing new MCU movies left and right. Spider-Man even has a whole cinematic universe dedicated to his comic book villains over at Sony. But Spider-Man’s next project will next the new Marvel animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is one of a string of new series by Marvel Studios Animation, the studio that’s also behind the multiverse series What If…? and the animated X-Men revival, X-Men ‘97. The Spider-Man animated series is the first of a slate of MCU animated series set to release on Disney+ in 2025, which also includes Marvel Zombies and The Eyes of Wakanda. As Marvel Studios Animation is behind these series, the question has naturally been raised of just how canon the story of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is to the mainstream MCU.


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What is Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man About?

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When Peter Parker was first introduced into the MCU in Captain America: Civil War he was already suited up and equipped with his comic book powers. The MCU made the decision to skip over Peter’s origin story to instead explore his coming-of-age high school story alongside his duties as the already-established Spider-Man. However, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man intends to explore Peter’s roots and uncover the journey the character went on to become a superhero.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will play out in a unique comic-book-style animation format that pays homage to the character’s origins. Snippets of the series so far have shown Peter fighting crime in his homemade Spider-Man suit and previews have confirmed the series will include notable villains Norman Osborne, Scorpion, Rhino, and Venom. Peter will also have his high school friends at his side, such as Harry Osborne and Nico Minoru. Other MCU characters like Doctor Strange, Daredevil, Kingpin, and Tony Stark are also set to make appearances.


Is Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Canon?

The inclusion of so many Marvel characters in one show is exciting but also has potentially huge ramifications for the MCU and its timeline. This is why the animated series is set in another universe within the Marvel multiverse and is not a part of the main Earth-616 timeline. Peter’s interactions with characters like Doctor Strange and Otto Octavius, when he was younger, would break the timeline established in the mainstream MCU. Hence Marvel Studios is using the multiverse to its advantage to tell this particular Spider-Man story. Another noteworthy thing is that, in this alternate universe, Peter is raised under the mentorship of Norman Osborne, rather than Tony Stark, which will no doubt have ramifications on the type of hero he becomes.


Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Not Being Canon is A Good Thing

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The MCU is continuously expanding, adding more installments and crossovers to its interweaving narrative each year. While this is exciting for the continuation of the cinematic universe, it also does limit creativity in some respects. To preserve a cohesive timeline for its past and future projects, Marvel Studios often steps in to steer its creative teams away from using certain comic book characters or plot elements in their stories that may impact other projects that are in the works. By setting Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man in the multiverse and therefore away from the main action of the MCU, the animated series avoids these limitations and essentially has creative freedom to do whatever it pleases.


This also opens the door for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man to be a true comic book adaptation and enter the more heightened space that comics often utilize. Peter having friends like Nico Minoru (a character from Marvel’s Runaways) is a neat pairing that might never have happened unless the animated series existed in the Multiverse. Similarly, it allows Marvel Studios to explore avenues of Spider-Man’s character under its roof in the animation space that it might never be able to bring to life in live-action.

Tom Holland’s fourth Spider-Man film is currently in development, but it will still need to adhere to the restrictions laid out in the narrative of the wider MCU. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man offers a break from that and gives fans of the character a chance to see certain Spider-Man stories come to life that may never have otherwise.


Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will be released on Disney+ on January 29, 2025.

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