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With the debut of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Marvel Studios is creating their second-ever large-scale universe inside the MCU; the first being, of course the 'Sacred Timeline.' And while Kevin Feige & co. have created other universes before as we've seen in Avengers: Endgame, Loki, and the What If...? series, those were all but mere pitstops to what Marvel Studios is discreetly planning here.

With Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Marvel Studios is creating a full-fledged "sister" universe to the 'Secret Timeline' part of what is called the 'Marvel Animated Multiverse.' Let's call it the MAM for short.

How Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man sets up a new universe inside the MCU

While Peter Parker/Spider-Man is indeed the main character of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, 250+ minute first season sets up the broader MAM more so than the first 250 minutes of the MCU - that is, 2008's Iron Man and Incredible Hulk.

Without spoiling what I've seen from watching the first season, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man sets up not only Spider-Man's immediate friends, family, and high school compatriots, but also Daredevil Wilson Fisk, Doctor Strange, Captain America, Iron Man, Venom, and even the Runaways' Nico Minoru (as a part of the main cast even!) and Amadeus Cho. And while Tom Holland doesn't voice this Peter Parker, Holland's #1 voice-acting stand in Hudson Thames does - and MCU stalwarts Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio voice Daredevil and Wilson Fisk, respectively. 

This clearly isn't set in the MCU as originally planned, but versions of what happened in the MCU do (and did) happen in the MAM. To say more would be spoilers..

"Taking place in a sister timeline one universe over allows us quite a bit more freedom and helps us tell stories that don't necessarily have to go down a familiar route," Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man creator/showrunner Jeff Trammel told Animation Magazine recently. 

Remember how quickly Marvel Studios greenlight a spinoff to What If...? Within three months of season 1 debuting, the Marvel Zombies series was announced. And its worth mentioning Marvel has already greenlit a second season of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man itself.

If this show is as well received as X-Men '97 (or even What If...?) a spinoff series for the Avengers could be the next logical step. 

How Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man compares to the Spider-Verse movies

Another thing worth mentioning is that Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is being built unconnected but side-by-side with Sony's animated Spider-Verse of movies (and TV shows, soon enough). It'd be foolish not to think Marvel Studios could be looking to replicate their own Spidersona with what they have on tap.

While the paperwork of this show crossing over with Sony's movies might be tall, you have to remember they've done it twice - once with Sony partnering with Marvel to allow Spider-Man into the MCU (and be orchestrated by Marvel Studios), and then back with Donald Glover's MCU role as Aaron Davis/The Prowler appearing in 2023's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. 

What Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man could be the start of for the MCU

It's important not to let the cart get before the horse here and allow this to overshadow what is going to be one of the best Spider-Man animated series since the '90s. Just as 2008's Iron Man wasn't about setting up the MCU but about making a great Iron Man movie, it's not the first time Marvel Studios has been able to do both.

Face it, tiger... Marvel Studios might be about to hit the animated jackpot.