The Spectacular Spider-Man is widely regarded by fans as one of the best, if not the best Spider-Man show that has ever been made! It’s a series that has enormous respects towards the character of Peter Parker and understands perfectly why Spider-Man is one of the most iconic and relatable superheroes in history. It’s able to greatly showcased these relatable aspects of Peter in his adventures as Spider-Man along with not being afraid to explore mature themes such as stress, relationships, balancing school and work, and even dark/sensitive topics such as gambling and drug addiction. Despite being targeted towards children, it’s able to deliver a quality superhero show that anyone of any age can understand or relate to without needing to dumb everything down. That’s not to say it’s a perfect show by any means. The animation can be campy and unrealistic (especially with the way Spidey is practically defying the laws of physics by web swinging through the skies) and the fast pacing can make certain story elements feel rushed or glossed over but nevertheless, it’s an absolutely great adaption of Spider-Man and one that is a must watch for any fan of the character!
With a show this popular and loved by many fans, you would think it would have lasted for several seasons with plenty of spin-offs attached to it. After all, the initial plan that creators Greg Weisman and Victor Cook had for the show was to make at least five seasons worth with at least 65 episodes along with direct-to-video movies that would also tie into the series. It’s even been stated that there were plans to explore Peter throughout the second half of his tenure in high school and even possibly see him through his years in college. However, none of that ended up being the case whatsoever. The show itself only lasted for two seasons with a combined 26 episodes. How is it that a show this popular and this good in quality could only last for two whole seasons? It’s quite a bit of a story!
During the initial run of The Spectacular Spider-Man, Disney had purchased the rights to Marvel. This was right before the Marvel Cinematic Universe would take the world by storm with Disney clearly wanted some sort of slice of the big money pie that was the Spider-Man IP. At this point, Sony still owned the rights to Spider-Man and was just coming off finishing the Sam Raimi trilogy while trying to figure out what to do next with the character. When it came to negotiations involving Spider-Man, Disney requested for Sony to transfer their television rights or movie rights to the character. Sony chose to hold on to the movie rights while the television rights went over to Disney.
However, despite forking over those specific rights to Disney, Sony still had full control of all production and distribution rights for The Spectacular Spider-Man. It’s never been made clear as to why Sony was still hold on to specifically that but nevertheless, they still did technically owns the full rights to the show. The problem though is that because the television rights as a whole were now with Disney, Sony was no longer legally allowed to make any Spidey show on their own that was under 45 minutes using Spider-Man and any associated characters they had with the television rights. While there was an attempt from both sides to get the show to continue, too many legal problems got in the way and made it’s continuation impossible. As a result, The Spectacular Spider-Man got cancelled before it even had a chance to reach it’s full peak.
Disney would eventually follow-up the show’s cancellation with a brand new Spidey toon of it’s own in 2012 with The Ultimate Spider-Man, which was aimed to have a more lighthearted and kid-friendly style tone as it’s been speculated that Spectacular was considered too adult themed for younger audience. Despite the show lasting for four seasons and gaining just over 100 episodes, the overall response to it ranged from lukewarm to downright negative, with many fans criticizing the show for it’s overreliance on slapstick comedy and abandoning the core themes of Peter Parker that many have resonated with the character for years. Disney would eventually follow up Ultimate with another show strictly titled Spider-Man (or Marvel’s Spider-Man) that aired in 2017. The show would last much shorter than the previous one with three seasons and 58 episodes with a fairly similar reception to Ultimate Spider-Man from fans and critics alike. Ever since owning the full tv rights to Spider-Man, it looks as though Disney still has yet to make a show of the web swinger that even comes remotely close to the quality of The Spectacular Spider-Man despite both shows they made lasting for much longer.
It’s unclear as to what’s next for Spidey when it comes to his next animated show. While there had been announcements for at least two Disney Plus series involving Peter Parker in his earlier years in high school with Spider-Man: Freshman Year and Spider-Man: Sophomore Year, recent reports have indicated both shows are receiving a massive production overhaul which could lead to either one of those being put on hold or even canceled. While it seems nearly impossible now and feels like some sort of wish fulfillment fantasy, I still think this now would make for a great opportunity if Disney decide to wait on making a new original Spider-Man show and should consider bringing back the Spider-Man show they canceled altogether in The Spectacular Spider-Man.
Remember when Disney cancelled Star Wars: The Clone Wars shortly after purchasing Lucasfilm and moved on to making Star Wars: Rebels, a decision which upset it’s fans quite a bit? Then, once Disney Plus became a thing, they decided to bring the show back all together for one more season and let Dave Filoni and company give the show that they’ve worked on for so long the worthy conclusion that it deserved. Imagine if Disney is able to let Greg Weisman do something like that with The Spectacular Spider-Man?
Granted, that in of itself does seem like much more of a long shot than it ever was with the revival of The Clone Wars. At least when it comes to the Clone Wars, the show was still fairly recent when it was announced to return on Disney Plus and had a handful of scripts and unfinished animation left over to make that a possibility some day. Not to mention, there was actually some sort of production of the latter seasons before it was shut down, all of this and more unlike with The Spectacular Spider-Man. That being said, I still think that giving Spectacular a revival in similar style would make fans more happy than simply making another inferior Spidey toon.
All of the pieces to make this a reality are still here many years later. Many of the cast and crew are still around and a lot of them have expressed their willingness to return to the show if they were ever able to get the chance again. And with a movement that came out last year with a twitter hashtag trending #SaveSpectacularSpider-Man with even creator Greg Heisman and the voice of Spider-Man himself Josh Keaton taking notice of it along with numerous online petitions, that shows that there is in fact a dedicated fanbase out there that wants the show’s revival badly and are willing to do whatever it takes to bring it back. In a perfect world, that would be enough to get the show back in a heartbeat and see a fully realized version of one of the best Spider-Man movie/tv adaptions ever. Unfortunately, as of right now, we don’t live in that perfect world.
Until we end up living in that perfect world, The Spectacular Spider-Man will go down as one of the biggest tragedies in Marvel history. A tragedy of a show that had potential to be Marvel’s equivalent of Batman: The Animated Series, a complete groundbreaking series of a well-known/loved character from comic books along with many possible spin-off movies to follow. Unfortunately, it simply came out at the wrong place at the wrong time. It came at a time where Disney’s acquisition of Marvel came in and Sony simply rolled the dice in order to keep the film rights to Spider-Man at the expense of their television rights.
It makes you wonder how things could have gone through differently if it was the other around. Imagine if it was Sony holding onto the tv rights and Disney gaining the movie rights? That way, Sony would have still been able to continue The Spectacular Spider-Man with likely little to no legal trouble against them and Disney would have been able to incorporate Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe much sooner instead of later on down the line. While that did at least lead to some eventually great Spider-Man features down the road such as Into the Spider-Verse and No Way Home, there still has yet to come a show with that level of quality. Until that day comes where Disney is able to make a Spider-Man show that blows our minds, we can only sit back and imagine seeing the full version of The Spectacular Spider-Man in the hopes of some sort of comeback. Stranger things have happen but even stranger things is likely to never happen. What a tragedy ineed!
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