Disney+ Day reveals generated a tonne of excitement. One of the most intriguing upcoming shows revealed was the Disney+ animated series Spider-Man: Freshman Year. However, the question that fans are asking since the reveal is: is it canon to the MCU?
Spider-Man Freshman Year logo
Several years ago, Disney and Marvel struck a deal with Sony Pictures. It was this deal that finally allowed them to bring Spider-Man into the MCU. Over the years, there were some issues. Like when the deal fell apart during Spider-Man: Far From Home’s production. However, thanks to vocal fans and Marvel Studios, things quickly recovered. Now, with Spider-Man: No Way Home releasing soon, a new Spider-Man animated show is on the way.
Spider-Man: Freshman Year was announced during Disney+ Day that celebrated the 2nd anniversary of the streaming platform’s launch. It is an upcoming animated show that will follow Peter Parker in his freshman year of high school. This is the same year he became Spider-Man. Now, this is from Marvel Studios and will air on Disney+. So there was some confusion about whether the animated show even takes place in the MCU or not. After all, the Marvel-Sony deal will be ending soon.
Tom Holland MCU Spider-Man
As per a press release, the upcoming animated Spider-Man: Freshman Year show will be part of the MCU. As such, it is confirmed to be a prequel of Spider-Man: Homecoming. Right now, it’s unclear if Tom Holland will reprise his role as Peter Parker and voice the character. This is because Spider-Man was recast in What If…? season 1 earlier this year. And also because this animated show will probably need a younger-sounding voice for Peter Parker.
Also, after the issues regarding What If…?’s voice acting, it’s better if Marvel sticks to professional voice actors rather than hiring the actors of the character. When it was first announced that Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures were developing a new Spider-Man Trilogy, the core idea was to show Peter Parker in high school. Now, both the previous live-action Spidermen have been in school too. But they wanted to do something which wasn’t done in the Sam Raimi and Marc Webb’s Spider-Man movies.
Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield
Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man didn’t spend much time in high school. He quickly went to college and moved on with his life. Andrew Garfield’s spidey focused less on school and more on the other things outside of it. Tom Holland’s web-slinger had a good mix of both. But that changed with Far From Home, and it’s likely that it will change with No Way Home too. However, with this animated show, Marvel can finally do justice to the idea.
We don’t think that Spider-Man: Freshman Year will be a long-running show in any way. After all, there are only so many stories that can be told in the freshman year of high school. However, this means that familiar faces like Liz could show up. On the flip side, this means that MJ might get a smaller role since Peter and she wasn’t so close back then.
So there’s a lot of potentials since we will finally get to see Peter’s origin story as Spider-Man in the MCU. And all of it will be MCU canon. If all goes well, maybe the animated series will branch into a thing of its own. But that’s not certain yet. What’s certain is the fact that Spider-Man: No Way Home will release on Dec 17, 2021.
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