Disney Plus’ New Spider-Man Series: Breaking Free from MCU Canon Due to Creative Constraints
Shock TV chief Brad Winderbaum states that the forthcoming Shock series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man has ceased to pursue being MCU canon due to the undeniable fact that it could create limitations on the Disney Plus series.
“Initially, it was centered around ‘Okay, this is Spider-Man’s first year, he’s going to be a novice, can we manage to have this be entirely within the MCU?’ and very early in the development phase, we realized how constricted that truly made us,” Winderbaum conveyed during an interview with Phase Hero. “We couldn’t really tap into his rogues gallery, we couldn’t fully explore his origin. It was not enjoyable, honestly. We would have needed to impose so many restrictions on our narrative to fit it into canon.”
Winderbaum further remarked that the constraints posed by trying to make the show canon put the team in a “difficult position” while attempting to synchronize the in-show Peter Parker’s timeline with that of the current MCU live-action Spider-Man portrayed by Tom Holland. “Every single project I’ve been involved with, they’ve all had a life of their own…. You must allow them to develop independently and pursue their own paths.”
On the other hand, just because the show will be somewhat different from what we see on the big screen in terms of origin story and primary adversaries does not mean it can’t embody an authentic Spider-Man narrative. “It carries a lot of DNA that is very similar to the MCU portrayal of the Tom Holland Spider-Man, but it also harkens back to Steve Ditko,” the TV executive explained, referencing Ditko who co-created the character for Shock comics. “It’s adjacent to the main continuity but truly captures the essence of the character.”
Part of Shock’s Season 5, this exciting series is based on Holland’s Spider-Man but is set in an alternate MCU timeline where Peter Parker is mentored by Norman Osborn instead of Tony Stark. Hudson Thames voices Spider-Man, Colman Doming