Disney giveth and Disney taketh away. Just a couple weeks before we’re due to get a new Marvel animated series on Disney Plus, the Mouse House has snatched another from our fingers, like the streaming equivalent of Ebenezer Scrooge.
The MCU’s 2023 wraps up this yuletide with What If…? season 2, which is dropping its nine episodes daily starting Dec. 22, but Disney Plus has gone and spoiled our festive glow by removing another uber-popular Marvel animated series with zero warning. Specifically, The Spectacular Spider-Man became unavailable to watch on the platform in the U.S. as of Dec. 5.
2023 was shaping up to be Spectacular Spider-Man‘s year as well, what with Josh Keaton reprising his role as this specific version of the webhead for a cameo in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. So the fact that it’s ending with both seasons of the sadly short-loved show vanishing from streaming is leaving Disney Plus on everyone’s naughty list.
Did Norman Osborn take over as Disney Plus CEO and we all missed it?
Wrong animated Spider-Man, but the support is appreciated.
If you’re not familiar with Spectacular and don’t understand all the fuss, just know that the series — which originally ran on The CW/Disney XD from 2008-9 — was widely agreed to be the finest animated Spidey adaptation until the Spider-Verse films came along.
We’re not entirely sure Christopher Nolan was thinking about Spectacular Spider-Man when he said this, but the news is only proving his point that streaming is “evil.”
So, thanks for dumping that coal in our streaming stocking, Disney. For the moment, then, if you want to catch The Spectacular Spider-Man you’ll have to track down a Blu-ray copy or else purchase it through platforms like Prime Video, on which it’s $1.99 per episode.
