Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man started life as a series set on the Sacred Timeline which promised to explore Peter Parker's time as Spidey before he encountered Tony Stark in his apartment (the idea was dropped due to being "not fun").
It's since evolved into a story that essentially asks, "What if Norman Osborn had been Spider-Man's mentor instead of Iron Man?" That's an intriguing premise and new details about the show have been revealed by executive producer Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt on The Official Marvel Podcast.
"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 explains in the video below. "There are a couple different ways you can tell a Peter Parker and Spider-Man story. It starts with Peter in his Freshman year."
"In the most recent Spider-Man movies [with] Tom Holland we meet Peter [as a] sophomore but what happens when he's just into school with all the newness that brings?"
"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," Vasquez-Eberhardt continued. "It's a very recognisable world but Peter doesn't end up going to Midtown."
"It's a world where he never met Ned, he never met MJ. Who might he run into?" the producer, who has also worked on X-Men '97 and I Am Groot added, before revealing, "Nico [Minoru] is such a great fit for Peter. She's very different from Ned and they fit so well together."
So, this Spider-Man never encounters Iron Man and, by not going to Midtown High, also doesn't encounter Ned and MJ. This feels less like a "jag" from the Sacred Timeline and more like a completely separate reality, but it still sounds like a compelling new status quo for the character.
You can hear more from Vasquez-Eberhardt in the video below. In that, she talks more about Tombstone's role in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and why the Runaways' Nico was a good fit for this latest Marvel Animation series.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man follows Peter Parker on his way to becoming a hero, with a journey unlike we've ever seen and a style that celebrates the character’s early comic book roots.
The talented voice cast includes Hudson Thames, Colman Domingo, Eugene Byrd, Grace Song, Zeno Robinson, Hugh Dancy and Charlie Cox.
The head writer is Jeff Trammell and Mel Zwyer is the supervising director. Brad Winderbaum, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt and Trammell serve as executive producers.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man premieres on Disney+ on January 29, 2025.