How Spider-Man Freshman Year connects to the main MCU universe
Peter has a different mentor this time around
Spider-Man: Freshman Year, a brand new animated series from Jeff Trammell, unveiled its first look at San Diego Comic-Con – and Marvel fans are both excited and a little curious as to how this new series will fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The series follows Peter Parker as he figures out his Spider-Man identity, and takes place before the events of Captain America: Civil War. Both Doctor Strange and Daredevil, voiced by none other than Charlie Cox, team up with Peter as he encounters classic Spider-Man villains like Chameleon, Rhino, Scorpion, Tarantula, Speed Demon, and Doctor Octopus.
"It follows the pattern that you see in Civil War, down to Peter getting the broken Blu-ray player from the trash and he walks into his department for the famous moment where Tony stark is waiting for him to offer him the stark internship and take him to Berlin," Marvel Head of Streaming Brad Winderbaum explained to ComicBook. "But because of things that happen in the multiverse because of new, random occurrences, it's not Tony Stark who's waiting for him there. It's Norman Osborn and that sends his life in an unexpected trajectory that collides him with many unexpected characters in the Marvel universe."
Norman Osborn becomes Peter's mentor in the short-lived animated series The Spectacular Spider-Man, which ran between 2008 and 2009. As a scientist at OsCorp, Osborn offers to take him under his wing, though this doesn't last long before Osborn makes a full transition into The Green Goblin. It'll be interesting to see Peter potentially become an intern at Oscorp in Freshman Year, rather than go off with Tony Stark to train for the Avengers, and have to struggle with keeping his double life a secret in a brand new way. How this fits in with the multiverse or impacts Earth-616 (aka Earth as we know it in the MCU and the one where Tom Holland is Spider-Man), only time will tell.
Spider-Man: Freshman Year is set to hit Disney Plus in 2024, and Spider-Man: Sophomore Year is already in production. For more, check out our list of every new Marvel movie and show.
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Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ currently based in the Midwest. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.