15 (Slightly Radioactive) Facts About 'Spider-Man: The Animated Series'

The show that infamously allowed no punching, that featured the jankiest CGI outside of a scratched PS1 game demo, with a legacy leading to one of the worst Spider-Man adaptations ever… this is also the show that led to No Way Home, Blade, and maybe the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Hold on, so… We’ll get to Blade (see down below), but Avi Arad was using this show as a testing ground to see how to make an actual, live-action Spider-Man movie. He even used scripts as pitches for movies. Avi Arad would eventually (after this show was canceled and Unlimited was canned) make the Raimiverse Spidey films, which (along with the X-Men films) featured a young Kevin Feige, a junior producer working for Arad. It was from Spider-Man’s success (and we mean Spider-Man: The Animated Series’ success) that Fiege began working on Marvel films, and Marvel films became a profitable thing, the two keys that led to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Which is why, despite Arad being a complete tool who viewed every movie as nothing but a toy commercial (and for that reason wanted the disabled elderly woman cut from the show, because who would want that toy?) he is thanked for his work in bringing about the Spider-Man series in Spider-Man: No Way Home – and the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Which means, yes… this show is responsible for Jared Leto’s Michael Morbius. If it were able to, we’re sure it’d apologize.