When the Marvel Cinematic Universe kick-started, it was known for sharing the same narrative across multiple interconnected live-action movies. Sure, a few television series such as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. also formed part of this universe, but they were never too impactful to be considered a must-watch. As such, fans would often feel the potential to tell great superhero stories across the small screen was wasted and overlooked. That was our reality for many years until Phase 4 came by and changed everything for the better.
WandaVision would become the first in a long list of Disney Plus shows starring fan-favorite characters and with no shortage of meaningful stories. But while it's been great to see other corners of the Marvel Universe explored across these projects, there's one big downside: Most of them only last one season regardless of how well they do. WandaVision is perhaps the best example of this phenomenon since it had 7.3 billion minutes worth of viewership and yet a second season never saw the light of day. Moon Knight, Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, and many more also joined this list — with Loki and What If...? being the only two exceptions... until now
See, it was recently confirmed that a highly anticipated Disney+ MCU series will be back for a second a third season even before its release. That's right, true believers, we'll get to see more of Spider-Man on the small screen.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man seasons 2 and 3 confirmed
Brad Winderbaum — Head of Streaming, Television, and Animation at Marvel Studios — recently got the opportunity to talk about Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man in The Movie Podcast. Much to fans' surprise, Brad revealed work is already underway for season 2 of the Disney+ animated series, and that season 3 has been officially greenlit:
"I've now, like, read all the scripts for season 2, we're halfway through the animatics (...) We're also green-lit for season 3, so in a couple of weeks I'm going to hear [Jeff Trammell's] pitch for the third season of the show."
For starters, Disney must be pretty confident in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man to green-light two more seasons before the first one even airs. General audiences have yet to see a single episode of the series, meaning they won't know if it'll be a success and whether they'll be back to watch more of it. This isn't the usual pattern big studios like to follow unless they're 100% certain they have a hidden gem in their hands, which is great news in this case.
Besides, it's great to know that Marvel is already working on the animation for Season 2 of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Hopefully, that means we won't have to wait too long to see more of this latest iteration of Peter Parker. Let's remember it took almost three years for the series to be released ever since its official announcement back in 2021. It's been a long wait, for sure, but one we may not have to endure yet again. So how long will it take for new chapters to drop? Well, there was a bit over a one-year gap between the second and third seasons of What If...?, so fingers crossed that we're facing a similar scenario this time around.
Furthermore, it's worth highlighting that perhaps none of this would've been possible if Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man followed its original direction and showcased Tom Holland's Spidey origin story in the MCU. Fortunately, the show pivoted mid-production to be its own stand-alone adventure set in a parallel universe. Had that decision not been made, then we could be looking at a one-and-done from Marvel yet again. After all, there's only so much you can do when the main character's story is already set in stone beforehand.
If Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was still a prequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming, then characters such as Scorpion and Doctor Octopus couldn't have made an appearance. Furthermore, we wouldn't get the highly-anticipated Spidey vs Daredevil fight. All things considered, it appears Marvel made the right decision even if it came at the cost of us having to wait a little more than originally expected after the announcement. And just when it seemed things couldn't get any better, early reactions to the show only say positive things about it — meaning fans will be in for a memorable ride that still has two more seasons to go after its first one.
The first two episodes of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will be released on Jan. 29, 2025, on Disney+.