For long-time fans of the classic Peter Parker from Marvel Comics, 2017 is shaping up to be a good year with the release of Spider-Man: Homecoming. After a scene-stealing appearance in Captain America: Civil War earlier this year, the trailer for the Tom Holland-led Spidey film got fans the world over excited to see Peter tackle high school problems, save the day, and have a few team-ups with Iron Man. While Andrew Garfield's take on the character had plenty of fans, most Spidey diehards have been excited to see what a teenage Peter will be like in his own movie.
On the animation side of things, Marvel and Disney look to be taking a similar approach. After 4 seasons on Disney XD, Ultimate Spider-Man will be ending next month. Though fans of the zany show will surely be disappointed, Marvel won't be leaving them hanging for long. Back in October, we learned that a new animated series simply titled Marvel's Spider-Man would be coming to the channel sometime in 2017. The new project is set to be helmed by Robot Chicken story editor Kevin Shinick and Philip Pignotti, the supervising director for fellow XD Marvel series Avengers Assemble. Marvel and Disney have stressed that the series will go back to basics in its approach to Spidey, much like Homecoming looks to do.
Now, thanks to We Got This Covered, we know that Spider-Man won't be alone when he swings back to television next year. Based on a series of images and merchandise released for Marvel's Spider-Man (see below), it looks like Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy will be joining Peter in his adventures.
It's hardly surprising that Miles and Gwen would be added to the show. Both have featured in Ultimate Spider-Man, with Miles having a particularly large role in recent seasons. They've also become two of Marvel's most popular characters in the comics, which has seen the two heroes recently start dating. It also looks like Venom will be returning in his classic form, as opposed to the Agent Venom version that's mostly featured on the current series. Venom's inclusion is also not a surprise, given his popularity, but it helps to paint a better picture for the new TV show.
Given what everyone involved has said about Marvel's Spider-Man being a more classic take on Spidey, along with the inclusion of more spider-centric characters like Miles, Gwen, and Venom, the new show looks like it'll follow the recent seasons of Ultimate Spider-Man and focus more on the wall-crawlers. The current series started with the idea that Spidey was recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D. and paired with a series of other teen heroes, like White Tiger and Nova. Along with its fourth-wall breaking and cutaway gags, the series featured lots of space adventures and epic shenanigans. It seems that the tone of the new show will dial things back down a bit.
The inclusion of Shinick and Pignotti, though, means there will still be plenty of comedy and action. Robot Chicken is well-known for its absurdity, while Avengers Assemble mixed plenty of fight scenes with a more grounded, serialized approach to storytelling that will benefit Spider-Man. The designs for Spidey and Venom also harken back to the underrated Spectacular Spider-Man series, so hopefully that'll mean a similar take on the character involving interconnected and overarching plots.
Ultimate Spider-Man will air its series finale on January 7, 2017, with Marvel's Spider-Man premiering sometime later in the year on Disney XD.
Source: We Got This Covered