Following the events of the Sacred Timeline would've hurt one of Marvel Studios' most beloved series, according to one producer. Without question, Spider-Man is the MCU's most important hero. He's relatable to everyone, and his solo projects do rather well for themselves at the box office. The only downside is that there's only one Wall-Crawler to go around.
Sure, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield reprised their roles in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. But they're not going to stick around for the long haul, even if Maguire is game to make cameos like the one he's rumored to have in Avengers: Doomsday. A workaround Marvel Studios has been using for its eight-legged conundrum is the animation medium, where it can introduce alternate versions of Peter Parker.
Spider-Man had minor roles in What If...? and its spinoff series, Marvel Zombies. However, his real claim to fame on Disney+ is Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, which follows the hero in his early days. Despite the opportunity being there for the creative team to make the show part of MCU canon and take Tom Holland's character on new adventures, it decided to set it in an alternate universe, giving it freedom it wouldn't have had otherwise.
In the book The Art of Marvel Animation's Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, producer Jeff Trammell explained why he was excited by the direction the show decided to go in.
"I think it was so cool that I could take characters and pour them into the world. I don't know that we could have done this had we just stuck with a straight MCU canon or if we were doing a show outside of Marvel Studios. We wouldn't have access to all these wonderful characters, so I'm very grateful that we were able to take advantage of Marvel's huge lineage of characters, and we were allowed to mix and match as it befitted the story."
Trammell even took things a step further by singling out Nico Minoru as one of the characters who wouldn't have appeared on the show if it were part of MCU canon. In Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, she's Peter's best friend and spends much of her time studying magic. On Earth-616, Nico's adventures played out in the Hulu series Runaways, which didn't mention Spider-Man a single time.
But Nico isn't the only one benefiting from Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man's flexibility. The show's sophomore outing is gearing up to introduce a couple of new characters that are confirmed to be different than previous iterations.
Marvel Characters Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Will Put Its Stamp On In Season 2
Ghost-Spider
Sony's Spider-Man movies have shown plenty of love to Gwen Stacy. Emma Stone played the character in The Amazing Spider-Man duology, helping out her boyfriend, Peter Parker, when he took to the streets to fight crime. Sadly, refusing to stay on the sidelines got Gwen killed when she fell down a clock tower in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
While Stone's character didn't live long enough to become a hero, the animated version of Gwen in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse got her chance. She aided Miles Morales in shutting down Kingpin's Super Collider and returned to face off against The Spot in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.
The version of Gwen that will appear in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is following in Hailee Steinfeld's shoes, not Stone's. She's set to suit up as Ghost-Spider and aid the titular hero in his mission to keep New York City safe. And it's about time because Earth-616 is taking its sweet time unveiling its own Gwen.
Venom
Despite being introduced later than most of Spider-Man's iconic villains, Venom consistently gets thrust into the spotlight. Topher Grace brought Eddie Brock to life in Spider-Man 3, merging with the Venom symbiote after being done dirty by Peter Parker. Unfortunately, things didn't end well for Sam Raimi's Venom, as he met a tragic end during his fight with the Wall-Crawler and the New Goblin.
Tom Hardy's Eddie, on the other hand, got to ride off into the sunset. After spending three movies fighting with his symbiote partner, he embraced his role as a hero in Venom: The Last Dance and stopped Knull from tearing the multiverse apart. Venom died in the conflict, but Eddie remembered his fallen friend fondly.
As of writing, it's unclear whether Eddie becomes Venom in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man's upcoming outing. A symbiote appeared in Season 1 that will return and claim a host. However, there are a number of candidates waiting in the wings, including Harry Osborn and Flash Thompson, who became Agent Venom at one point in the comics.
