‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’ Showrunner Explains Why the Show Was Move Off the Sacred Timeline
The first two episodes of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man have arrived on Disney+, and so far, fans are loving the new animated series.
With a 100% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes and plenty of social media buzz, it looks like Marvel Animation has struck gold once again.
Photo: Marvel
For those who don’t know, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man tells the story of a teenage Peter Parker, who struggles to balance his burgeoning career as a crime fighter with the everyday struggles of being a high school student.
The Series Is Not Set on the MCU’s Sacred Timeline
In the lead-up to the series’s release, Marvel made it clear that the Peter Parker we meet in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is not the same character that Tom Holland portrays in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
This version of Peter Parker is not recruited by Tony Stark. Instead, it is Norman Osborne who takes him under his wing.
Photo: Marvel
While setting Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man in its own universe gave the show more creative freedom, initially, the series was going to be set on the MCU’s Sacred Timeline. This version of the show would have focused on Peter’s adventures before meeting Tony Stark.
When the Change Occurd
In a recent interview with ComicBook, series showrunner Jefff Trammell revealed that the decision to move Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man out of the MCU came quickly in the show’s development.
Daredevil. Photo: Marvel
“Very early on (in the process),” Trammell said. “I would say within the first two months of just coming up with the story. We were like, ‘Well, we’re very limited here. Let’s move it over, out of the ‘Sacred Timeline,’ gives us a bit more freedom.”
“It Really Freed Us Up”
As Trammell explains, by setting Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man in its own universe, the show’s team could pick and choose which MCU moments to include without being pigeonholed.
Photo: Also Marvel
“So, if we want to tell a show that’s not only fun and engaging, but not kind of like, ‘Well, this person can’t find out because they find out in Homecoming’ or, ‘We can’t do this grand scale thing because people would have noticed that by now.’ It really freed us up. But also allows us to…pick and choose the moments of the MCU continuity that we do want to address,” he continued.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Photo: Also Marvel
Ultimately, it looks like Trammell and his team made the right choice.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is streaming now on Disney+.
