Marvel’s 2024 Spider-Man Change Shows The Studio Is Already Learning From MCU Phase 4 & 5 Mistakes

Marvel is making a major change to Spider-Man, and Peter Parker’s 2024 project shows just how much the Marvel Cinematic Universe has learned from its recent mistakes. Tom Holland’s time in the MCU as Peter Parker will continue for the foreseeable future, with Marvel and Sony currently developing the best possible story for Holland’s Spider-Man 4. While the actor will be back for more live-action adventures as Peter, the MCU’s Spider-Man movies will not be the only project headlined by the character going forward.

Spider-Man will return to the MCU in 2024 for his own series, with the previously announced Spider-Man: Freshman Year‘s story exploring the early days of Peter Parker’s time as the Marvel hero. While Holland will continue playing Spider-Man in live-action, the hero was recast for the upcoming animated series, with Hudson Thames replacing Holland as Spider-Man. Thames previously voiced the character in Marvel’s What If…? Now, a major announcement regarding the Spider-Man series has been made by Marvel, and it proves that the studio’s recent issues have led to internal changes.

Spider-Man: Freshman Year’s New Title Prevents Future Confusion

Spider-Man: Freshman Year has been retitled to Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. The move is going to prevent what could have been major confusion, as the animated Spider-Man series had already been renewed for a season 2, only the show’s title would be changed to Spider-Man: Sophomore Year for its second season. However, Marvel’s decision to rename the series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man tackles that problem directly, eliminating the need to retitle the series for season 2 and any possible new entry after that, with the single animated Spider-Man show becoming a multi-season series. That move is a sign of what is to come for the MCU.

Marvel Will Lean More Into Multi-Season Shows

Tom Hiddleston’s Loki was the first Marvel Studios series to get a season 2, and it was an enormous success. The move went against Marvel’s practice of having several limited series, ranging from 6-episode shows for dramas and 9-episode series for comedies. The animated What If…? will also return for season 2 in December — with season 3 confirmed to be on the way — signaling a change for the MCU. Many of Marvel’s series on Disney+ received a lot of criticism over poor pacing and not developing their characters enough, which could have been solved through an extra season or two.

As Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man shows, the MCU is getting ready to start delving into multi-season shows more frequently. That was reported to be the case moving forward for the MCU by The Hollywood Reporter back in October. According to the report, “the studio plans on leaning into the idea of multiseason serialized TV,” with Marvel Studios’ major restructuring of how it does TV also counting on the hiring of actual showrunners to spearhead the projects. Based on that, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is the first sign of a major change for the MCU.