Marvel Keeps Charlie Cox Booked and Busy With Spider-Man: Freshman Year

Photo: Marvel Studios

Is that Charlie Cox in another Marvel project? Why yes, yes it is. Daredevil’s involvement was just one of the many new details revealed for Spider-Man: Freshman Year, X-Men ’97, and the rest of Marvel’s upcoming animation slate on Disney+ at San Diego Comic-Con 2022. During the 90-minute panel, Marvel Studios head of streaming, television, and animation Brad Winderbaum and writer Jeff Trammell spoke about their show Spider-Man: Freshman Year. Taking place before Captain America: Civil War, it explores Peter Parker and his newfound Peter-tingle powers. While it was announced that the show will debut in 2024 — with a second season, Spider-Man: Sophomore Year, already ordered — it’s weirdly unknown if MCU’s actual Peter Parker, Tom Holland, will return.

We do know that comic characters Norman Osborne, Nico Minoru, Amadeus Cho, and villains Rhino, Scorpion, and Tarantula will all be joining Daredevil, all of which bring up major canon issues?! Freshman Year could be a different multiverse branch in the MCU, but the panel did not mention those details sadly.

Then there was news for fans of X-Men: The Animated Series as the revival, X-Men ’97, will premiere in fall 2023. The revival will pick up where the original series ended with (spoiler) the death of Charles Xavier. Winderbaum and X-Men writer Beau DeMayo told convention attendees that Magneto will now lead the X-Men, complete with a fresh new baddie look of long white hair and a pink-and-blue suit, with Mister Sinatra leading the group’s villainous adversaries.

Even though mutants have popped up in recent MCU projects (Patrick Stewart returning as Charles Xavier in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness; Ms. Marvel uttering the word mutation), X-Men ’97 marks the first official mutant project since the Walt Disney Company acquired 21st Century Fox (and the X-Men with it) in 2017. The revival, however, will not likely tie into the overall Marvel cinematic universe.

Here are some other Marvel tidbits to know …

• On August 10, I Am Groot, a miniseries starring Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper reprising their roles in voice-over, will premiere on Disney+ with a second season underway.

• The second season of What If, Marvel’s multiverse series that introduced Captain Carter and Jeffrey Wright’s the Watcher, is set to premiere in early 2023. A third season was ordered.

• Marvel Zombies will feature animated appearances from zombie versions of Captain America, Wanda Maximoff, Hawkeye, Captain Marvel, and more fighting heroes Jimmy Woo (his superpowers are magic, I presume), Yelena Belova, Kate Bishop, and Shang-Chi. It premieres in 2024.