'Spider-Man: Freshman Year' Gets A Friendly Rename In 2024 Marvel Animation Slate Reveal
Season 2 won’t be called 'Spider-Man: Sophomore Year' either, Monday’s 'What If…?' season 2 premiere event revealed
Marvel Studios has renamed Spider-Man: Freshman Year, so now presumably they won’t have to change it for every season. The series is now known as Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and a 2024 release has been reconfirmed as part of a Marvel Animation Disney+ sizzle reel for the year, showcased after a screening of two episodes of the upcoming season of What If…? on the Walt Disney Studios lot.
Sure, a sizzle reel isn’t a guarantee. Who can forget when Warner Bros. released their 2022 DC sizzle reel “The World Needs Heroes” a month before punting The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom to 2023? But it’s still assuring. The reel also featured X-Men ‘97, which was one of the series announced alongside the newly-renamed Spider-Man series on Disney+ Day in November 2021. It’s been drips ever since, with not much in the way of visuals released to the wider public, especially since San Diego Comic-Con 2022.
What If…Disney+ Does Daily Releases For Season 2? It’s Happening
Marvel Studios’s year isn’t over yet. Following the finishing of Loki’s second season and the release of The Marvels in theaters, there’s one more present under the World Tree: the long-awaited return of the animated series What If…? Disney+ and Marvel
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man follows Peter Parker through his high school years as Spider-Man, with his bite seemingly occurring around orientation. Described as “bringing the heart and charm of Peter Parker,” he was looking very comic book-inspired. It was at SDCC 2022 where a second season was announced to be in the works, at the time subtitled Sophomore Year. While initially pitched as “MCU Peter under Norman Osborn’s mentorship instead of Tony Stark” the deviations were becoming too numerous and evident, such as the fact that the Osborns of the main MCU continuity couldn’t even be found in Spider-Man: No Way Home. His supporting cast includes the Runaways’ Nico Minoru, an unidentified love interest, eventual Hulk Amadeus Cho, a Wakandan student and Harry Osborn. Unicorn, Chameleon, Scorpion, Speed Demon, Tarantula, Rhino, Butane and Doctor Octopus were among the showcased villains. Paul F. Tompkins voices an original character named Bentley Witman. Charlie Cox will voice Daredevil, in a way making him akin to Phil Coulson (voiced by his only ever actor Clark Gregg) in Ultimate Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange will be present too. According to United States Copyright Office filings, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is targeted for a November 2 premiere.
On X-Men ‘97, picking up from the original Fox Kids series, Rogue, Beast, Gambit, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Storm, Jubilee and Cyclops are now being led by Magneto with Professor Xavier off world, and will be joined by Cable, Bishop, Forge, Morph and Nightcrawler. The Hellfire Club with Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw, as well as Bolivar Trask will appear, with Mr. Sinister apparently being the major villain. Its release is supposed to be in the early part of the year.
Except they weren't the only shows in the reel. There was one previously unannounced and unreported (something to emphasize because they still haven’t announced Wonder Man) series featured in the reel: Eyes of Wakanda. Marvel’s given description reads: “Throughout Wakandan history, brave warriors have been tasked to travel the world retrieving dangerous vibranium artifacts. These are their stories.” No other details were given, but it seems like another way to play in Wakanda without being anchored to T’Challa, even when it doesn’t need Chadwick Boseman’s voice or likeness for the character. Unfortunately, Marvel Zombies was not included, so it might not be ready until 2025.
The What If…? screening featured two episodes: the December 22 season premiere, “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”, that describes it being “In a world where Ronan deposes Thanos long before the events of Infinity War” so it probably takes place long before The Avengers too. Maybe the fork involves him getting the Tesseract during the 1995 events of Captain Marvel? Well, Nebula…joins the Nova Corps (clearly) because she is “desperate to escape her father’s shadow”, and is ready to prove herself as a detective. The second is the third episode, premiering two days later on Christmas Eve, “What If Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”, with its description reading When Justin Hammer lays siege to Avengers Tower during the annual holiday party, there’s only one person left on site to stop him—Happy Hogan. But in setting out to prove his hero chops, Iron Man’s errand boy may end up transforming himself in more ways than one.” The six other episodes of the season will roll out daily until December 30. The already-announced third season was also assured to audiences.
Mahershala Ali Is “Encouraged” By Where The 'Blade' Reboot Is Headed
With deals reached for writing and acting talent that the parties had to strike for, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Blade film is readying itself back into production. Despite all the troubles, star Mahershala Ali seems to indicate things are more than back on track with some great optimism.
Ahh...like a "highlight reel" in sports. Got it.
What is a "sizzle reel"?
I know that it in the old days movies were made on nitrate film, which was extremely flammable and caused the loss of thousands of films over the years when the prints burnt up in bad storage conditions. It's not like that, is it?