“It's still very similar to the way Walt and his teams in the early days were putting these things together,” Marvel’s Spidey and his Amazing Friends co-executive producer Chris Moreno said during a Disney Television Animation panel at the TCA Winter Press Tour. Despite technological advancements that make a series like this one possible, behind the scenes, the production is one that Walt Disney would likely recognize if he got in a time machine and visited the present. “It's still writers and artists, and people that want to tell stories, getting together in a group and collaborating to make these things come to life. That’s the through line that carries through the generations as we make these shows.”
(Disney/PictureGroup)
Speaking of carrying through the generations, Spider-Man debuted in Marvel Comics in 1962, the creation of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. While generations of parents have introduced their children to the fan-favorite web-slinger, the 2021 launch of Marvel’s Spidey and his Amazing Friends on Disney Junior was the first time the character had a dedicated preschool series that made it easy for parents to share this superhero with their kids in a way that was age-appropriate. “The parents and the kids are both coming at it with awareness of who the characters are, saying, ‘Oh, I grew up with this myself,’ and they're bringing their kids into it. We've also got Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy doing our songs and composing for the show. So we're hitting so many different ages and experiences with the material, and that's just inherent with who we've worked with and how we're approaching it.”
As the title suggests, the series isn’t just about Peter Parker and his alter ego. It assembles a spider-verse worth of web-slingers that allow more kids to see themselves swinging between skyscrapers. “Anecdotally, I've heard from parents that have said, ‘My daughter can play Spidey with her friends now because there's a girl Spidey,’” Chris Moreno shared about Ghost Spider, aka Gwen Stacy, being included alongside Peter Parker and Miles Morales. “That was the thought process was carrying forward that idea that anybody could be a hero. And I think we're seeing it kind of manifest in the world around us, our friends, our family, people that come up to us.”
Marvel’s Spidey and his Amazing Friends kicked off its third season on January 8th, with the first 5 episodes of the season now streaming on Disney+, and new episodes broadcasting on Disney Junior and Disney Channel, including a Valentine’s Day special. But for longtime fans, a lot of new friends and foes are joining Spidey’s world. “We've got Zola, a kooky Evil Robot Genius… Lockjaw, Miss Marvel's teleporting dog.” He also teased new locations. “We've got our Webspinners theme where all three heroes get these cool teched-out outfits that let them go outside of the friendly neighborhood. They get to go to the Arctic, and the desert, volcanoes, because of the cool technology they developed.”
Marvel’s Spidey and his Amazing Friends is now streaming on Disney+. Check TV listings for Disney Junior and Disney Channel showtimes.