Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man himself, Hudson Thames, just set the record straight on his controversial comments before the show’s release. The new animated series is set in an alternate reality where budding superhero Peter Parker gets a lot of help from Norman Osborn, until Osborn’s evil plan comes to light. Since Osborn was depicted as a Black American this time around and several other non-white characters were included in the show, there was some racist commentary circulating online. Back in January, Thames seemed to amplify these commenters when he told an interview, “my biggest fear was that it was gonna be annoying and woke.” On Tuesday, he explained what he really meant in an interview on Get Rec’d.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“So, obviously, something that I said was cherry-picked and used essentially with no context just to kind of stir up some drama,” Thames began. “We were talking about that little period of time before the show came out, and I was noticing a lot of comments online that I was getting, that was either people being nervous or expressing concern that the show was using topics of diversity and equality in an inauthentic or disingenuous way. It made me defensive, like I wanted to kind of defend our show a little bit.”
“It was such a poor choice of words,” Thames went on. “My point was that our show doesn’t have to do that, it doesn’t have to pull any tricks. [Showrunner] Jeff [Trammell] did such a brilliant job, in my opinion, of writing what he knew. Equality and diversity was just already baked into the story he wrote, and nothing felt forced, I suppose, so I was really just trying to compliment the grace in which that all plays out in the show, and ironically, it’s what attracted me to the show so much in the first place.”
[RELATED: Gwen Stacy Swings Into Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Season 2]
Even in January, many commenters gave Thames the benefit of the doubt in assuming this is what he meant, though his comment did come off dubious. At the time, he told Collider that the show “was awesome,” continuing, “I mean, my biggest fear was that it was gonna be annoying and woke, and it wasn’t, and I was like, ‘Yes, this is great, it’s so well written,’ like it feels real.”
For those left wondering, Trammell vouched for Thames at the time as well during a Q&A with fans on Reddit, writing that Thames “simply misspoke, and I know that’s been weighing on him.” Marvel Studios never officially commented on this controversy, and with his new clarification, most commenters seem satisfied that it can be put to rest.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is streaming now on Disney+. Another season is expected to premiere next year, and the show has already been renewed for a third season as well.
Most Viewed
-
20th Television Animation
