Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is an American animated television series created by Jeff Trammell for the streaming service Disney+, based on Marvel Comics featuring the character Spider-Man. It is the 12th television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) from Marvel Studios and is produced by Marvel Studios Animation. The series explores Peter Parker's origin story and early days as Spider-Man, and is set in an alternate timeline from the main films and television series of the MCU where Norman Osborn becomes Peter's mentor instead of Tony Stark. Trammell serves as showrunner and head writer, with Mel Zwyer as supervising director.
Hudson Thames voices Peter Parker / Spider-Man, reprising his role from the Marvel Studios animated series What If...? (2021–2024), with Kari Wahlgren, Grace Song, Eugene Byrd, Zeno Robinson, Colman Domingo, Hugh Dancy, and Charlie Cox also starring. Disney+ announced the series as Spider-Man: Freshman Year in November 2021, with Trammell attached. It was originally intended to be set in the main MCU continuity but the creative team found this too restrictive and decided to move it to an alternate timeline, allowing the series to explore familiar ideas and characters in new ways. It was retitled Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man by December 2023. The 3D cel-shaded animation pays homage to the art style of early The Amazing Spider-Man comic books by Steve Ditko and John Romita Sr., with animation provided by Polygon Pictures and CGCG, Inc.
The first season of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man premiered with its first two episodes on Disney+ on January 29, 2025, with the remaining episodes released in groups until February 19, as part of Phase Five of the MCU. The second season is expected to premiere in 2026, as part of Phase Six. A third season is in development.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man explores Peter Parker's origin story and early days using the Spider-Man persona. The series is set in an alternate timeline within the multiverse, where Peter gains his abilities through a temporal paradox caused by Dr. Stephen Strange time-traveling while he is fighting a symbiotic alien. Another change in this universe is that Norman Osborn becomes Peter's mentor instead of Tony Stark, as happens in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's (MCU) main timeline.
The character Gwen Stacy / Spider-Gwen is set to appear in the second season.
A second season was announced in July 2022. Trammell and another writer wrote the season finale.
By June 2021, Marvel Studios Animation was developing a slate of at least three more series in addition to their Disney+ series What If...? (2021–2024). The next month, these were said to be in various stages of development and were not expected to debut until at least 2023. Spider-Man: Freshman Year was announced during a Disney+ Day event in November 2021, with Jeff Trammell serving as head writer. Trammell was initially asked to pitch for X-Men '97 (2024–present) and endeared himself to Marvel Studios for wanting to tell an original story, despite plans for that series to be a revival and continuation of X-Men: The Animated Series (1992–1997). Marvel Studios' animation head Brad Winderbaum and president Kevin Feige felt Trammell would be good for a Spider-Man series. He presented a pitch in November 2020, envisioning a four-season story arc.
During Marvel Studios Animation's panel at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2022, Spider-Man: Freshman Year and the other projects discussed were referred to as being part of the "Marvel Animated Multiverse". A second season was announced at the panel with the title Spider-Man: Sophomore Year. The series was retitled Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man by December 2023. In January 2025, Trammell explained that the series was not limited to covering one school year per season. When Marvel Studios decided to change the series' title, Trammell provided a list of options to consider. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was suggested by Feige. Each of the first season's episode titles are a reference to, or inspired by, comic book titles or elements from the comics. Mel Zwyer served as supervising director, with Liza Singer and Stu Livingston as episodic directors. Marvel Studios' Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Winderbaum, and Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt were executive producers alongside Trammell.
Also in January 2025, Winderbaum said a third season had been green-lit, and Trammell was listed as both showrunner and head writer by Marvel.com. The next month, Winderbaum said the second season would be released in 2026, more than a year after the first, but he hoped that future seasons could be released annually. He said Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and X-Men '97 were the studio's top priorities for "get[ting] to a place where we can reliably have very strong seasons every year".
The series was originally planned to be set within the "Sacred Timeline" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), before Peter Parker / Spider-Man's MCU introduction in the film Captain America: Civil War (2016), and depict the character's origin story. Marvel Studios decided not to tell the origin story in the MCU films because they felt audiences would already know it due to the Spider-Man films directed by Sam Raimi (2002–2007) and Marc Webb (2012–2014). The creative team found working within the Sacred Timeline to be too restrictive regarding which characters and comic book elements could be included, so they decided to move the series to an alternate timeline, taking advantage of the MCU's multiverse concept. The story begins similarly to Civil War but depicts Norman Osborn becoming Peter's mentor instead of Tony Stark, which leads to Peter meeting other unexpected characters. Peter's origin story is still told in the series, though it differs from previous depictions: Peter is bitten by a spider that falls out of a portal created by Dr. Stephen Strange as he is fighting a symbiotic alien, and the first-season finale reveals that this spider was empowered with Peter's own blood and then taken back in time by Strange's portal, creating a temporal paradox in which Peter gains his abilities from himself.
Trammell said the series would explore Peter's identity pre-Spider-Man and how his superhero career began. The creative team took inspiration from early The Amazing Spider-Man comic books by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, as well as previous Spider-Man animated series. Trammell took specific inspiration from the way characters were developed in The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008–09). He wanted to use the series to approach familiar ideas and characters in new ways, such as Norman Osborn's role as Peter's mentor, and Peter's father Richard being alive. Winderbaum said the series was "so essentially Spider-Man" because it features Peter trying to juggle high school, caring for his aunt May, and being a superhero. He said the large ensemble of characters allowed for interesting relationships and stakes, and an emphasis on the "neighborhood" from the series' title by featuring supporting characters in prominent roles; Winderbaum compared this to Trammell's work on the animated series Craig of the Creek (2018–2025). Several characters not usually associated with Spider-Man are included in the series, including Nico Minoru in the role of Peter's best friend, as well as Jeanne Foucault / Finesse and Amadeus Cho. Trammell also considered including a young Jessica Jones as one of Peter's classmates.
Writers for the first season included Trammell, Charlie Neuner, Raven Kone, and Halima Lucas. Tramell wrote half of the season's episodes, but was only able to write around two episodes for the second season because of his other commitments as showrunner; this led to the expansion of the writing team for the second season. The writers' outline for the season features 56 pages of story elements. In January 2025, the second season scripts had been written and Winderbaum was preparing to hear Trammell's pitch for the third season. Given the series' renewal for three seasons, Winderbaum noted that Trammell had been building a narrative through-line for the series since the first season.
At Comic-Con in July 2022, Charlie Cox was announced to be reprising his role as Daredevil from previous MCU media for the series, while Paul F. Tompkins was cast as Bentley Wittman. Cox recorded his lines in 2021 during breaks in filming for the live-action MCU series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022). In September 2023, a United States Copyright Office filing for the series revealed that Hudson Thames was voicing Peter Parker / Spider-Man, reprising his role from the first season of What If...? (2021), with Eugene Byrd as Lonnie Lincoln, Grace Song as Nico Minoru, Hugh Dancy as Otto Octavius, Kari Wahlgren as May Parker, and Zeno Robinson as Harry Osborn. The creative team were struggling to settle on an actor for Norman Osborn who they felt could live up to the character's reputation, until Zwyer suggested casting Colman Domingo. Trammell thought that was a "genius idea" and they immediately approached the actor, who was "super excited" to take on the role. Domingo's casting was announced in August 2024.
In December 2024, Cathy Ang was revealed as the voice of Pearl Pangan. Ahead of the series' premiere in January 2025, more actors were revealed for the series: Robin Atkin Downes as Dr. Stephen Strange; Anjali Kunapaneni as Jeanne Foucault / Finesse; Erica Luttrell as Asha; Aleks Le as Amadeus Cho; Zehra Fazal as Carla Connors; Jake Green as Butane; Mick Wingert as Tony Stark / Iron Man, reprising his role from What If...?; Roger Craig Smith as James Sanders / Speed Demon and Dmitri Smerdyakov / Chameleon; Anairis Quiñones as Maria Vasquez and Carmilla Black; Travis Willingham as Mikhail Sytsevich and Thaddeus Ross; Sarah Natochenny as Mila Masaryk / Unicorn; Leilani Barrett as Big Donovan; and Jonathan Medina as Mac Gargan / Scorpion. Former wrestler Ettore Ewen was also revealed to be part of the cast, voicing the character Bulldozer. He began work on the first season in 2022, and was working on the second season by January 2025. Other actors for the first season include Zach Cherry, reprising his MCU role as Klev, and Josh Keaton as Peter's father Richard. Keaton starred as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in The Spectacular Spider-Man and Trammell was excited that they were able to cast him as Richard Parker.
After the first season was released in February 2025, Trammell announced that the character Gwen Stacy / Spider-Gwen would be appearing in the second season.
Because Marvel Studios Animation does not have a "house style", the creative team was free to develop an animation style that differed from previous series What If...? and X-Men '97. They wanted to avoid copying one of the many different animation styles used for the animated Spider-Verse films and settled on paying homage to the early The Amazing Spider-Man comic books, specifically those featuring art by Steve Ditko and John Romita Sr. Trammell described the series as a "moving comic book", which is achieved through 3D cel-shaded animation provided by Polygon Pictures and CGCG, Inc.. Polygon was chosen because of the 2D animation look they had achieved in their previous work. Trammell said the company was able to match their desired style while keeping the "characters feeling alive and real, without feeling stiff and mechanical".
Leo Romero was the lead character designer, with comic book artists Chris Samnee, Paolo Rivera, and Ethan Young also working on the series. Trammell praised Romero for modernizing the designs while retaining classic elements. They leaned further into comic book references for Peter's Spider-Man suits and some of the villains' costumes, including those for Octavius and Gargan. Peter starts the series in a homemade suit made from "gym pants, sneakers, goggles, a blue sweatshirt, red undershirt, knee pads, very clunky web-shooters, and a red logo on the chest". He rejects several Oscorp suit designs which are based on alternate suits that Peter wears when he takes on different personas during the 1998 "Identity Crisis" comic book event: a golden suit with a red cape used for the "Prodigy" persona, a purple suit with hover-wings used for the "Hornet" persona, and a dark blue wingsuit used for the "Dusk" persona. Peter goes on to wear a white and blue Oscorp suit resembling Spider-Man's Future Foundation costume from the comics, and then a "classic 60s" red and blue suit. The first season's opening credits features splash pages inspired by comic book art. Romero reworked these to reference events in the series and to match its style.
Development on the first season took four years to complete, finishing in August 2024. Trammell said the season could have been finished earlier in 2024, but the season kept having various finalizing stages pushed back in order for Marvel Studios to accommodate other series. By February 2025, animatics for the second season were halfway complete and some animation was already complete.
Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson were revealed to be composing the series' score in June 2024. The series' theme song, "Neighbor Like Me" by The Math Club featuring Relaye and Melo Makes Music, is a rap that samples the theme song from the animated series Spider-Man (1967–1970) by Paul Francis Webster and Bob Harris. Like the series' animation, Trammell wanted the theme song to be "something classic that we all love" through the use of the 1960s sample, while still having a modern style. The song was released as a single by Hollywood Records and Marvel Music on January 21, 2025. A soundtrack album featuring the theme song and excerpts from Birenberg and Robinson's score was released digitally on February 21.
The series was discussed during Marvel Studios Animation's panel at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con, where character art was revealed. The series was featured in a sizzle reel of Marvel Studios Animation's 2024 series in December 2023. Trammell, Thames, and Domingo promoted the series during Marvel Studios Animation's panel at the D23 Expo in August 2024, where Domingo's role as Norman was announced and footage was shown. Footage from the series was included in a video that was released by Disney+ in October, announcing the release schedule for Marvel Television and Marvel Animation projects through the end of 2025.
A trailer for the series was released at the end of December, following the conclusion of What If...?'s third season. Toussaint Egan of Polygon described the series as "long-awaited", and Jordan King at Empire called it "hotly anticipated". King and IGN's Adam Bankhurst both highlighted the trailer's combination of classic Spider-Man references—including the art style and theme song—with contemporary animation and imagery. Discussing the trailer for Gizmodo, Justin Carter said it was "well worth the wait" and felt the series would be appreciated by people who wanted the MCU's Spider-Man to have some "smaller adventures".
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man premiered with its first two episodes on Disney+ on January 29, 2025, with the remaining eight episodes released weekly in groups of two or three until February 19. Chris Agar of ComicBook.com described the release schedule as unusual for an MCU series and suggested it was designed to avoid overlapping with the debut of the Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again in March. The series was previously scheduled to be released in 2024, and a filing for the first episode with the United States Copyright Office in October 2023 had indicated an approximate release on November 2 of that year. The first season is part of Phase Five of the MCU. On February 19, 2025, the first episode was made available for free on YouTube. The second season is expected to premiere in 2026, as part of Phase Six. Winderbaum hoped that future seasons could be released annually.
Whip Media's viewership tracking app, TV Time, which tracks viewership data for the more than 25 million worldwide users of its TV Time app, reported that Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was the most-anticipated new television show of January 2025. According to market research company Parrot Analytics, which looks at consumer engagement in consumer research, streaming, downloads, and on social media, the series was the most in-demand Disney+ TV show during the week of February 28 to March 6. The animated series ranked No. 1, surpassing The Acolyte, which came in second. This high level of demand was observed not only in the U.S. but also in international markets such as Russia, the UK, Canada, and Australia.
Spider-Man was one of the ten most-streamed original series in the U.S. from February 2–9, according to Whip Media. TVision, using its Power Score to evaluate CTV programming through viewership and engagement across over 1,000 apps, reported it as the fifth most-streamed series from February 3—9. Streaming analytics firm FlixPatrol, which monitors daily updated VOD charts and streaming ratings across the globe, announced that Spider-Man was the most-streamed Disney+ title on February 9. Disney+, which calculates its "Top 10" list by considering daily views for episodes and movies alongside the growing popularity of newly released titles, revealed that the show was the seventh most-popular title in the U.S. on March 11.
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an 97% approval rating with an average rating of 8.2/10, based on 35 reviews for the first season. The site's critical consensus reads: "Embracing the wholesome aesthetics of the webslinger's original comic run while adding some fresh plot wrinkles, this family-friendly Spider-Man is a lovable incarnation of the Marvel superhero." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the first season a score of 77 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Domingo was named an honorable mention for TVLine's "Performer of the Week" for the week of February 17, 2025, for his performance in the last two episodes of the first season. Eric Goldman wrote for the site that Domingo made the season's slow-burn approach to Norman Osborn work well, providing "the right underlying tension" behind the character's support for Spider-Man.
In September 2024, Marvel Comics announced a five-issue comic book prequel series, also titled Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, written by Christos Gage and featuring art by Eric Gapstur. Trammell explained that the comic book fills a timeline gap in the series' first episode. He said it was possible that more comic books could be written to fill other timeline gaps later in the series. The comic book includes characters not featured in the series such as Silvio Manfredi / Silvermane, Crusher Hogan, and the Enforcers members Montana, Fancy Dan, and Ox. The first issue was released in December 2024.