When Emmy-winning writerKevin Shinickpitched his one-word idea to executives forMarvel’s Spider-Man, he knew he had their attention.
The word: Science.
(Somespoilersare ahead, so fair warning.)
Image via Disney XD
Let’s face it: Spider-Man’s been adapted alot, even in recent years.
Theyve all been updated successfully.
I really want to spend more time in his world.
Image via Kevin Shinick
Thats what drew me to him; he was the first superhero who was a kid.
So we did that.
We went back and created a scenario and tried to make it authentic.
Image via Kevin Shinick
Hes a 16-year-old science geek, which hes always been, but hes really obsessed with it.
That was my entry point for this series.
Youll notice that every episode really lays heavily on the science of it all.
Image via DisneyXD
You may learn some things along the way; we have a go at be accurate about certain things.
We tried to encapsulate all of that.
Hes about to take off on his first adventure as Spider-Man, as a hero.
Image via DisneyXD
Not a wrestler, not a celebrity.
What makes it different …
I said to Disney, Spider-Man can be encapsulated with one word.
Image via Disney XD
And they all thought I was going to say duality.
I said, Science.
They kind of sat upright a little bit, like, Oh, thats different.
Image via Disney XD
Hows it going to be about science?
That was important to me.
That means a lot to Peter.
So its Horizon High.
And then I came up with this idea of Hogwarts for Science.
And the original school, Midtown High, still exists.
Ah, the magic words: heroes and villains.
Who might we meet from Spider-Man lore in this series?
Shinick: You see different sides of Peter in this.
Hes a bit of an older brother and kind of protects Peter.
Down the line, you also have Miles Morales, who is also a student we meet.
Hes a year or two younger than Peter, but Peter gets to showhisolder brother side in that.
Miles is a little more hot-headed; he acts without thinking sometimes.
All the great villains are present, but Im introducing them in a new way.
In ours, most of them are either students or teachers, and we see how they evolve.
Its about competition and getting the best grades, or whatever.
I think a lot of our heroes and villains start that way.
Doc Ock is here, and yet weve seen him many different ways.
With great power comes with great responsibility is really what sets Peter Parker and Spider-Man apart from other people.
Others have the same access, but they use it for their own means.
Just the chance to make everything that we love through history new again was an exciting moment for me.
I hope weve done it because Im very proud of this series.
This is a fresh start for our character.
In our series, this is the first time the Avengers are meeting Spidey.
Only if he’s interested, of course:
Shinick: Id love that!
That would be a dream come true.
If it were up to me, yes.
I would absolutely love that.
He always was the character that I loved the most.
He was my first superhero growing up reading comics, and hes the one I read the most.
He was an obsession of mine for a while.
