The MCU's most recent Spider-Man star set the record straight after he received backlash for seemingly calling his Disney+ project "woke."
Marvel Studios recently returned to the world of the web-slinger with the release of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man on Disney. Complete with a few other major heroes heroes hidden through the show, this series gave viewers a new look at Spidey's origins in a universe already filled with other MCU-adjacent heroes.
While the show was led by Hudson Thames, who previously voiced Peter Parker in What If...?, the actor found himself caught in some wild controversy during the show's run on Disney+.
Spider-Man Star Clears Up "Woke" Comments About Disney+ Show
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man star Hudson Thames addressed comments he made which led fans to believe he was complaining about the show being "woke." Those original comments came in an interview with Collider released in late January.
Reflecting on that interview with Juju Green (aka Straw Hat Goofy), Thames felt part of his comments were "cherry-picked and used essentially with no context" to stir up trouble with fans:
"So, obviously, something that I said was cherry-picked and used essentially with no context just to kind of stir up some drama. We were talking about that little period of time before the show came out, and I was noticing a lot of comments online that I was getting, that was either people being nervous or expressing concern that the show was using topics of diversity and equality in an inauthentic or disingenuous way."
Those comments made him want to "defend [his] how a little bit," although he admitted that he made a "poor choice of words." The Spidey star made it clear that "equity and diversity was just already baked into the story" written by Jeff Trammell, which is what made him want to join in the first place:
"It made me defensive, like I wanted to kind of defend our show a little bit. It was such a poor choice of words. My point was that our show doesn’t have to do that, it doesn’t have to pull any tricks. Jeff [Trammell] did such a brilliant job, in my opinion, of writing what he knew. Equality and diversity was just already baked into the story he wrote, and nothing felt forced, I suppose, so I was really just trying to compliment the grace in which that all plays out in the show, and ironically, it’s what attracted me to the show so much in the first place."
This comes after Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man made a few notable changes to supporting characters from the web-slinger's lore. Some of those changes include a Black Norman and Harry Osborn along with a gender-swapped and race-swapped version of Dr. Connors.
While these changes were controversial to certain sects of the fandom, Thames' initial comments only added to the discussion for viewers. Hearing his explanation may help calm things down, particularly with Season 2 already moving onto development ahead of a likely 2026 release.
Watch the full interview with Strawhat Goofy below:
