Marvel Giving Tom Holland’s Peter Parker An Origin Story in Spider-Man: Freshman Year
Marvel is turning back the clock to give Tom Holland's Spider-Man an origin story in Spider-Man: Freshman Year.
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When Tom Holland was introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Peter Parker, the storytellers skipped a couple of steps. Now on Disney+ Day, Marvel is announcing they’re going to backtrack to show us everything we missed before Parker came home to find Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark chatting with his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). Rather than giving us a prequel movie, Marvel is giving us the animated series Spider-Man: Freshman Year.
Precious few details were released by Marvel in their announcement about Freshman Year today. The series will follow Tom Holland’s version of Peter Parker “on his way to becoming Spider-Man.” Marvel also says the series will include “a style that celebrates the character’s early comic book roots.” Executive producer Jeff Trammel will write the series. Trammel’s most recent writing work on an animated series was for Cartoon Network’s Craig of the Creek.
There’s no word whatsoever on what kind of voice acting cast we can expect on the series. Fans will likely be hoping that Marvel will manage to lure Tom Holland to the sound studio — along with the other Spider-Man regulars like Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, and Jacob Batalon — just as they did for What If…? But with Holland’s blockbuster ambitions now reaching beyond the Marvel Universe, including assuming the role of the hero Nathan Drake in Uncharted, the young actor’s schedule might not allow for it.
One interesting note from Marvel’s announcement is that Freshman Year will include a retro style celebrating “the character’s early roots.” Disney+ subscribers may have gotten a preview of that style in a 14 minute sizzle reel featuring previews from various upcoming Marvel projects. While there isn’t much about Spider-Man: Freshman Year in the reel, they do show a logo for the series, styled as something drawn in a notebook. At the last minute a corner of the “page” tears away, and we get a look at Peter Parker, though he doesn’t look a lot like Tom Holland. He looks more like a Parker Marvel artist Sal Buscema might have drawn in in the ’80s.
While 2002’s Spider-Man and and 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man differed in a lot of ways, both gave us an origin story for the hero. We saw both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s versions of Peter Parker gain their new powers, and saw each suffer the devastating loss of Uncle Ben. Meanwhile, when Tom Holland’s Peter Parker first meets Tony Stark in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, all of that is in Parker’s past. With the origin story already having been told twice in the last 20 years, Spider-Man: Homecoming co-writer/director Jon Watts opted to not give the world yet another version.
Some fans, however, still think Tom Holland’s version of the character needs his own iconic origin, which is a problem Spider-Man: Freshman Year will apparently fix. It will also be interesting considering how limited Parker will be in his crime fighting. The story will take place before his introduction to Tony Stark, and so presumably he’ll be limited to the outfit Stark finds in his bedroom ceiling in Civil War — and which he’s forced to use again after Stark takes his more advanced suit back in Homecoming — goggles and all.
