Marvel Animation’s long-awaited Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man arrives tomorrow, January 29, on Disney+, and the show’s voice talent is making the rounds to publicize the new series. You’d expect stars like Hudson Thames, who’s reprising his role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man from the What If…? animated series, to talk about how great the show is. But this is 2025, and there’s been a cultural shift in the way people feel they must speak about entertainment.
In an interview with Collider, Thames said his “biggest fear” about Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man “was that it was gonna be annoying and woke.” He also said his fear did not come true, and called the show “awesome” and “well written,” as well as true to the experience of young men (even non-super-powered ones) going through the trials of high school.
It’s worth noting that Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man has diverse casting that includes Oscar nominee Colman Domingo as Norman Osborn, a character originally drawn as, and usually portrayed as, a white man (Willem Dafoe played him in the Sam Raimi movies). The main takeaway from Thames’ response, then, doesn’t actually have to do much with Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man as a show—it’s more the fact he worried it would be “annoying and woke” and felt the need to reassure fans it’s neither of those things.
“Woke” is one of those concepts that on paper seems rather positive; it can mean, for instance, more inclusive casting that changes characters’ gender, race, sexual orientation, etc. from the source material—with the end result being fans who hail from traditionally marginalized groups get to see themselves represented in the entertainment they enjoy. There have been recent strides in superhero projects that mean after decades of being dominated by straight white dudes, a much wider variety of characters has entered the mix.
But in the era we’re currently stuck in, “woke” and what it stands for have become increasingly sneered at—you need only look at the ongoing scrubbing of Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion programs to see that. Pairing “woke” and “annoying” is unfortunate; feeling the need to jump out ahead of potential criticism by saying your show is neither of those is unfortunate, too. What’s even worse it that we’ll surely be seeing more of this kind of phrasing from Hollywood and beyond in the months and years ahead.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man hits Disney+ January 29.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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Source: Gizmodo