Every Spider-Man movie has given alternative versions of our favorite web-slinging hero. It looks like Disney+ will provide its own take on Peter Parker’s origin story in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. However, don’t expect to see Ned or MJ as part of Spider-Man’s origin story in the 2025 TV premiere with a good reason why.
In the Spider-Man: Home trilogy, Peter Parker’s best friend, Ned, and his girlfriend, MJ, use science and collaboration to help the teenage hero fight evil. But in No Way Home’s ending, Peter makes the ultimate sacrifice by having Dr. Strange remove everyone’s memories of the Midtown High student to avoid more villains from the multiverse coming. Disney+’s Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man being a brand new take on the Stan Lee hero, does this mean Ned and MJ will appear in the animated series? Based on The Official Marvel Podcast video's interview with executive producer Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt, don’t hold your breath:
The conceit of it was, 'What happened within that time in the MCU and what if things jagged one way or another with the Multiverse of it all?'
As Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt said in the podcast, the Tom Holland movies introduce Peter Parker as a sophomore at Midtown High. Well, it looks like Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will start with Peter as a freshman with his early days of high school explored before his transformation to our favorite MCU superhero. The new series will dive into a “branch” timeline similar to what we saw in Loki or What If…? where the events follow an alternate continuity path. So, that means we’ll be seeing Spider-Man’s story completely rewritten with Marvel’s Ned and MJ nonexistent in the new series.
More that we know about Peter Parker’s alternate storyline in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is while the events of Captain America: Civil War happened, Peter ends up not going to Midtown High. Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt kept it on the hush what exactly pulls the freshman away from school, but that he runs into some new friends. And no, it’s not Ned or MJ:
It's a world where he never met Ned, he never met MJ. Who might he run into?
The answer to who Peter Parker runs into comes from familiar faces in the superhero world. The first new character comes from Marvel’s Runaways— Nico Minoru who’s known for her gothic appearance and Wiccan magical powers. The show’s executive producer says she’s a great contrast to Ned with the duo being a "great fit" together. I could see Nico being beneficial for Peter in introducing him to the supernatural side of the MCU compared to Peter’s science-based mindset.
There’s also the interesting character dynamic of Peter and Lonnie Lincoln who we know as supervillain Tombstone. While the famed antagonist is a character we’d love to see in the upcoming Spider-Man 4 movie, he’ll appear in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man as having a “really wonderful, contrasting but complementary parallel journey” to Peter Parker. This suggests we may see Lonnie Lincoln as more of an ally to the show’s hero. On the other hand, maybe they’ll venture in the same path as Peter and Harry Osborn have in previous versions where they’re friends-turned-enemies. It’ll be interesting to see where this friendship ultimately goes.
Even though Ned or MJ won’t appear in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man as Peter Parker goes through a brand new story arch, it looks like New York’s teenage superhero will make new friends towards his coming-of-age journey. According to Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt, Nico and Lonnie will be “the heart and soul of what the show is.” So, we can’t go wrong with Peter making new friends that’ll bring feel-good friendship moments into a crime-fighting action series. You can see Peter, Nico, and Lonnie in the upcoming animated series coming to your Disney+ subscription on January 29th.
