The following story is going to contain spoilers for the season finale of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, available now if you have a Disney+ subscription. The 10-episode season is a wildly entertaining look at an alternate history for Peter Parker, and is absolutely worth your time, if you happen to be a massive Spider-Man fan. So dig in!
Jeff Trammell, the creator and showrunner for the magnificent Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, proved to fans over and over again that he has a deep appreciation for Spidey’s lore, and the ways that it can be manipulated to create drama. During a conversation he and I had at the beginning of this show’s run, Trammell spoke about Uncle Ben, and the influence he wanted that character to have on this version of Peter Parker. Well, in the season finale of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Trammell also brought back a crucial figure from Peter’s past, and teased out what’s sure to be an exciting narrative turn for Season 2.
As we watched the episode draw to a close, Peter’s Aunt May (Kari Wahlgren) was seen visiting someone in prison. The man picks up the phone, makes small talk, and then is revealed to be Richard Parker, Peter’s biological father! He drops this immortal line…
So, May… how’s my son doing?
… And just like that, a significant element of this version of Peter’s mythology has been changed.
Even better, though, is the fact that when you get to the end credits of the episode, you realize that the voice actor hired to play Richard Parker is none other than Josh Keaton, who famously voiced Spider-Man for years in the fan-favorite series The Spectacular Spider-Man. Keaton is no stranger to hero work, having voiced several Marvel and DC characters over the course of his career, including playing Captain America in the recent X-Men ‘97. But it’s his association with Spider-Man that really connects with fans. When I asked Jeff Trammell how important it was to get Keaton in that role, he told me:
From day one, I knew. It meant a lot to me. It meant a lot to me that we were able to get him. The role he's playing means so much to me. And I feel like it's another one, again, like I keep saying it, but similar but different.
Casting the actor associated with Peter Parker, but asking him to play Richard Parker, is a stroke of genius. This is why critics are falling in love with this program. It shows how much Trammell appreciates this world, and these characters. And it’s just another intriguing way that the writer laid out clues as to where Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Season 2 and 3 might be heading. Personally, I’m thrilled at the development of Otto Octavius as a threat.
But I also know that Trammell will use familiar and beloved characters like Tombstone, Scorpion, Doctor Strange, Iron Man and more in upcoming stories. If you want to watch our full conversation with Jeff Trammell, it’s below:
We just now got to the end of Season 1, so it’ll be a while before we see new episodes. But this was an outstanding start, and we can’t wait to see where the story goes from here.
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