Today Marvel launched their first Preschool focused series in Disney Junior’s Marvel’s Spidey & His Amazing Friends, and as you can tell from the clip above, the animation style and character designs are stylish and adorable all at the same time. Fans will join in on the adventures of Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy, and miles Morales as they swing through the city and stop some of Marvel’s biggest villains, and they’ll have some help from the Avengers too. Ahead of the big premiere, we had the chance to speak to series Executive Producer Harrison Wilcox all about the new series, including what characters will appear, what pre-schoolers will learn from the show, and more!
First we wanted to know how the show landed on Spider-Man being the show’s star, and Wilcox credit’s the character’s origins. “I think people landed on a preschool show about Spider-Man was because, if you look back in comics, he’s the original kid superhero,” Wilcox said. “And that, sort of, was like a perfect fit, in a way, for a show for younger audiences. If you look back into the comics, a lot of those older stories are full of wonder, and fun, and excitement, and lighthearted adventure. And so that’s what we were going for on the series, and I think that’s why it worked pretty well because that had already been established with the character.”
Videos by ComicBook.com
As for the cast, fans will not only get the three Spider-Verse characters but also some Avengers favorites, though not so many as to take away from the core group. Wilcox also noted how important Gwen and Miles are to the show.
“So we have three recurring guest star Avengers. Black Panther, Ms Marvel, and Hulk, and that’s it. We wanted to keep it to a small number so that our young audience could get comfortable and familiar with them. It’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends, but we do tell stories with not all three of the kids. Sometimes there’s two of them, sometimes just one of them, and an Avenger,” Wilcox said. “We have a great story with Miles and his dad. It’s a Father’s Day episode. So while it is called Spidey and His Amazing Friends, each of the three kids are equal leads on the series. Gwen and Miles, it’s just as much their show as it is Peter’s.”
The series has a delightful visual style to the world and characters, reflecting the tone of the show and the adventures within perfectly, and its roots in CG opened up new options for Wilcox. “Visually we want it to reflect the tone of lighthearted, fun, colorful excitement, but also not threatening, not frightening in any way. We wanted it to be a place where kids would feel welcome walking down the street. And what was really… It wasn’t a challenge, but was really a pleasant discovery, this being my first CG Spider-Man show, was how much more dynamic the camera can be in a CG show. And when you have spider characters that are jumping, swinging, spinning, flying all those things, to be able to move the camera like that has been a really gratifying experience,” Wilcox said.
Now, while the show is obviously aimed at pre-schoolers, that doesn’t mean parents can’t find things to laugh at and entertain them when watching with their children.
“Yeah. I mean, having preschool-aged kids on my own, I wanted to make a show that I want to watch with my kids. I want to make sure the kids will want to watch. But there are, and I didn’t think this would happen when we set out, but there are times, often, where I am laughing out loud as I’m watching animation cuts of the show, where Rhino is wearing a jet pack that he stole, and he’s flying through a hat factory. Now he has comes out of the hat factory and he’s got four hats on his head, stuck to his horn. That sort of thing,” Wilcox said.
“And it’s just like, this shouldn’t make me laugh, but it does. It’s just so funny. And I get to show stuff to my kids and they’re laughing too, along the way. The goal is to make sure this is a show that three to six-year-olds can understand, but we do want this to be a show that families can watch together, too,” Wilcox said. “And I think we’ve accomplished that with a lot of the… There is humor that works no matter how young or old you are.”
The show will feature several iconic villains and heroes, but it will also feature two new characters that young fans are sure to love, and they will want some merchandise for them ASAP.
“We’ve got Rhino, we got Goblin, and Doc Ock, and in addition to that, Doc Ock, she has Octobots, but she has one special Octobot called Cal, which is short for Calamari, who’s her special little bad helper,” Wilcox said.
Yeah, I can already tell Cal is going to be a favorite, but the heroes have their own new partner too.
“Well, because originally we came up with a character called Tracey, based on the spider tracer, which is Peter’s pet robot helper. And I came up with that character because I wanted Peter to have someone to talk to when he’s in his lab alone but also for hi-jinks along the way, like, falls off the table into the trashcan, gets caught by Goblin, those sorts of things,” Wilcox said. “We’ve had a lot of fun with the pet robots of Peter and Doc Ock sort of being dual opposites, and I, too, would very much like to have a plushy of each on my desk.”
Now, the series does have a similar name to the beloved classic animated series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends featuring Iceman and Firestar, so I had to ask if there was any chance of a camera from either.
“You will not find a bigger Iceman fan than me. However, right now we are focused on our core three spider characters, our core three guest Avengers, and our three villains,” Wilcox said. “We are focused on telling stories and having educational comprehension for this core audience. Down the road, maybe, but our focus is right now making the show the best we can with those characters. But like I said, I’m a big fan of that series and a big fan of those characters as well. So maybe someday.”
Speaking of the education side of the series, Wilcox revealed that the show will highlight the concept of teamwork for fans, but each character will also have elements to them that young fans can relate to.
“Well, the biggest one, the biggest thing we go back to over and over again on the series is teamwork,” Wilcox said. “Another one is that friendly neighborhood community responsibility, both for the environment and for each other. And those are sort of two of the big ones. But we also… Gwen is into music, and into history and detective stuff. So we go down that road a little bit. Miles is really into being present, and art, and going to the museum, and painting.”
“And we spend time incorporating that into the series. At one point in the series he gets web-shooters, they can shoot paint, so he can paint a mural on the wall of their headquarters,” Wilcox said. “And then Peter, obviously, is always looking towards the future. He’s the scientist. He’s the gadget guy, and always trying to improve upon his technology and the world around him. And so those are all little pieces that we play with fanatically, episode to episode, story to story. And it always comes back to teamwork at the end of the day.”
You can check out the episodes today on DisneyNOW, and episodes will start streaming on Disney+ soon after they air.
What did you think of Marvel’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends? Let us know in the comments or as always you can talk all things Marvel with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!
