Peter, MJ, and Ned almost had very different looks in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
Created by Jeff Trammell, the Marvel animated series premiered on Disney+ in 2025, exploring Spider-Man’s early comic book roots and charting his journey to becoming an MCU hero. Peter sports a new look in the show and is distinct from Tom Holland’s live-action version of the character, with neither MJ nor Ned playing a prominent role in the series.
Artist Kal Athannassov has now taken to Instagram to share his early artwork for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, revealing a look for Peter that veers closer to Holland’s take on the character. The art, which Athannassov says was exploratory in nature during the show’s early development, also shows what an animated MJ and Ned may have looked like. Check out the concept art below:
“Diving back into some more of my development work from [Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man],” writes Athannassov. He continues:
Before the show had fully found a style or set it’s story together I was hired to explore some early concepts for what the look of the characters would be. Beyond Peter, I also did some takes on MJ and Ned.
With them I was trying different takes on likeness for the characters – trying to capture the feeling of their live action counterparts while exploring a possible style for the show to exist in. Had lots of fun doing these.
In the final show, Peter, voiced by Hudson Thames, has hair that is more orange, and he sports distinctive round glasses. He also wears brighter-colored clothing. All of this is in contrast to Holland’s live-action version of the character, which is a little more subtle in its characterization. Holland, for example, wears more muted colors, just as Athannassov’s art depicts.
Ultimately, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man depicts a different social circle for Peter, with neither MJ nor Ned in it. In the art, both MJ and Ned very clearly take after the live-action versions of the characters, played by Zendaya and Jacob Batalon, respectively.
The artistic and storytelling decisions that the Disney+ series makes evidently paid off, as Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man reviews were broadly very positive from critics. The series sports a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, with praise aimed at the show’s embrace of the character’s comic book origins and its effective storytelling. The score from audiences is a little lower, coming in at only 62%.
The show was also a viewership success, as Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man season 2 is confirmed. The sophomore outing is expected to arrive on Disney+ this fall, but no specific date has been set just yet. In the new season, audiences can expect the introduction of the Venom symbiote, with Charlie Cox also expected to return as Daredevil. Gwen Stacy will also be making an appearance.
As for the live-action version of the character, Peter Parker will next appear in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is due out on July 31. This film will feature Holland back as Spider-Man, along with Zendaya as MJ and Batalon as Ned.
It remains to be seen how Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will evolve in season 2, but Athannassov’s art speaks to the long and iterative development process for an animated series of this nature. Though the show has ultimately carved out its own aesthetic and storytelling path, there was evidently a universe where the art style and character design was closer to that of the live-action films.
Release Date
January 29, 2025
Network
Disney+
Writers
Charlie Neuner
Hudson Thames
Peter Parker / Spider-Man (voice)
