Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Ending Explained - This One Twist Changes Everything for Peter Parker

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man has ended its 10-episode first season on Disney+. The series started out on an ambitious note, making some often profound changes to Spider-Man’s traditional mythology. That doesn’t change now, with the finale dropping some major bombshells and setting up a very interesting Season 2.

How does Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: Season 1 end? How does it set up a fascinating new conflict for Hudson Thames’ Peter Parker in Season 2? And will there actually be a Season 2? Here’s everything you need to know.

Warning: full spoilers ahead for the Season 1 finale of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man!

Spider-Man’s Time Loop Paradox

The series opened by presenting a decidedly different take on Spider-Man’s origin story. In Episode 1, Peter doesn’t go through the usual motions of attending a laboratory demonstration and being bitten by a radioactive spider. Instead, he’s caught in the middle of a fight between Doctor Strange (Robin Atkin Downes) and a monster that looks a little like Venom (and for good reason, as we’ll get into later). The monster sheds a lone spider which lands on Peter and bites him, sparking his transformation into Spider-Man.

At the time, it seemed as though the series was trying to establish a more mystical or supernatural element to Spidey’s powers, hence the Doctor Strange connection. But now we know the situation is even weirder than it seemed.

Season 1 culminates with Colman Domingo’s Norman Osborn attempting to show off the fruits of his labors with the Oscorp intern team. Osborn harnesses the inventions and research of Peter himself, along with Amadeus Cho (Aleks Le), Jeanne Foucalt (Anjali Kunapaneni), and Asha (Erica Luttrell). Together, their work allows for the creation of a device that can open a gateway to literally anywhere in the universe. Needless to say, Peter isn’t thrilled about being used as a pawn in the creation of a potentially very dangerous piece of equipment.

It almost immediately becomes apparent just how dangerous the device is when Osborn peers into a supposedly empty corner of the universe and accidentally invites a ravenous monster into Oscorp headquarters. And not just any monster, but the same one we saw fighting Doctor Strange in the premiere. And when Strange himself shows up to put a stop to Osborn’s interdimensional meddling, it becomes clear something very fishy is afoot.

During the course of their battle, Strange and the monster are thrust back in time to the very day Midtown High was destroyed and Peter became Spider-Man. It’s here where we learn the true origin of the spider the Venom-like monster shed. The spider isn’t a part of that monster, but was merely a stowaway from Oscorp’s lab. It was created by Osborn’s scientists as part of his research into replicating Spider-Man’s powers. The spider was empowered by Peter’s own radioactive blood. That leads to a real chicken and egg scenario. The spider gave Peter his powers, but it only had those powers to give because it was injected with Peter’s blood. So who came first - the spider or the Spider-Man? That’s time travel for you.

In any case, Spidey and Strange finally succeed in sending the monster back home and sealing off the portal before more Venom-y creatures can pass through. By this point, Peter is thoroughly disillusioned with Osborn, suggesting their mentor/mentee relationship won’t be continuing in Season 2. But he does get a nice pep talk from Strange, who by now is convinced Spider-Man has what it takes to be New York City’s greatest defender.

Will There Be a Season 2?

We’ll delve deeper into how Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man sets up a second season in a minute. But first, it’s worth establishing whether there actually will be a Season 2. Loki aside, Marvel Studios doesn’t have a great track record with revisiting its various Disney+ shows. And when even big-budget Star Wars shows can be canceled due to low ratings, there’s never a guarantee of more.

Fortunately, all signs point to Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man returning for a second and even a third season. Marvel renewed the series for Seasons 2 and 3 before Season 1 even premiered in January 2025.

Work is already well underway on Season 2 at this point, with executive producer Brad Widnerbaum revealing that the animators are halfway through the animatic stage. Winderbaum also revealed that he’ll soon be meeting with showrunner Jeff Trammell to hear Trammell’s pitches for Season 3.

"I've fallen so head over heels in love with these characters and I've now read all of the scripts for Season 2; we're halfway through the animatics," Winderbaum told The Movie Podcast. "What [Trammell] is building brick by brick in this show starts to pay off.”

As for when fans will actually see Season 2, that’s harder to say. Based on X-Men ‘97’s release cadence, it could be a while. X-Men ‘97: Season 1 debuted in March 2024, at which point the second season was already well into production. But X-Men ‘97: Season 2 isn’t on Marvel’s 2025 release calendar. At this point, fans will have to wait two years or more between seasons, and the same may end up holding true for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

Venom and Spider-Man’s Symbiote Costume

From the beginning, we suspected that the monster Strange fought in Episode 1 was connected to Venom, and that theory is proven correct in the finale. Osborn’s machine opens a portal to what appears to be Klyntar, the alien world that serves as home to Venom and his fellow symbiotes. More of those symbiotes attempt to pass through the portal before Strange and Spidey manage to finally shut it down.

That said, the series seems to be directly setting up Spider-Man’s black costume and the eventual rise of Venom. A piece of one of the symbiotes gets left behind when the portal shuts off. It’s surely only a matter of time before it tracks Peter down and bonds with him. And from there, it’s inevitable that Peter will reject his new symbiote companion and someone close to him becomes Venom.

But who will be the Venom of the Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man universe? Will the series borrow a page from the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon and Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2, making Zeno Robinson’s Harry Osborn Venom? Will Eddie Brock be introduced in Season 2? All we know is that it can't be a good thing that Norman is the one to discover the symbiote.

We’ll also have to see if Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man becomes the first Spider-Man animated series to feature the symbiote god Knull. Knull rules over his symbiotes from the center of Klyntar, and this brief encounter with Earth’s heroes may be all the motivation he needs to leave home and wage a campaign of destructive conquest.

The Scientists of W.E.B.

As mentioned, Peter and Norman’s relationship isn’t in the best state by the end of Season 1. As much as Norman has been a father figure and a much-needed source of moral and technological support for Peter, he ultimately showed his true colors by perverting the work of Peter and his fellow interns.

Most versions of the Spider-Man mythos have Norman eventually succumbing to his inner darkness and becoming the Green Goblin. We assume the same will hold true for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, but the series seems to be taking a more methodical approach and slowly transforming Norman from friend to outright foe to Spidey.

For now, we know that Peter will pivot from being an Oscorp intern to helping Harry spearhead the W.E.B. initiative in Season 2. W.E.B. is designed to bring together the brightest young minds in the Marvel Universe and allow them to pursue their work without interference. We see a shot of a whiteboard full of potential W.E.B. candidates, including all of Peter’s fellow Oscorp interns (though Amadeus makes it pretty clear he’s not interested).

Naturally, that list of names includes quite a few intriguing characters from Marvel lore. Among those name-dropped are future Electro Max Dillon, future Hobgoblin Ned Leeds, mutant runaway Kiden Nixon, and noted super-geniuses Priya Aggarwal, Tiberius Stone, and Tai Miranda.

The Rise of Tombstone and Doctor Octopus

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man sets up a lot of potential villains for future seasons. In addition to the aforementioned Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, it stands to reason that Paul F. Tompkins’ Bentley Whitman will eventually become the techno-villain known as The Wizard, and that Zehra Fazal’s Carla Connors will eventually become The Lizard. But two budding villains in particular seem destined to have major roles in Season 2.

That’s definitely the case for Eugene Byrd’s Lonnie Lincoln, who has all but completed his evolution from All-American football star to supervillain crime boss. Earlier in Season 1, we saw Lonnie exposed to a toxic gas that gave him superhuman strength, allowing him to team up with Spidey and take down the Scorpion (Jonathan Medina). Sadly, Lonnie is now firmly committed to leading the 110th Street gang in his new persona Tombstone. When last we see Lonnie in the finale, it’s clear his body is suffering the lingering effects of the toxic gas, as his skin slowly turns ivory white to match the distinctive appearance of the comic book Tombstone.

It’s also clear Spidey will have plenty to fear from Hugh Dancy’s Doctor Octopus in Season 2. Otto Octavius plays a recurring role in Season 1, where he serves as a weapons master of sorts to various budding villains before venturing out onto his own. He may be in prison currently, but Otto clearly has big plans in mind. We suspect both Peter and Norman alike will be dealing with the rise of Doctor Octopus in Season 2.

Nico Minoru’s Magical Reunion

One of the more notable changes to the traditional Spider-man mythos in this series is the fact that Peter’s best friend isn’t Harry or Ned or Mary Jane Watson, but Grace Song’s Nico Minoru. Season 1 establishes Nico as a counterculture rebel who slowly comes around on Peter’s friendship with Harry and, eventually, discovers his secret identity. But as the finale shows us, Nico has a big secret of her own.

At several points, the series teases the idea that Nico may have some form of protective magic. In the final moments we see just how deep her magical talents lie, as she performs a ritual apparently designed to help her communicate with her birth mother.

All of this ties back to Nico’s rich history in Marvel’s various Runaways comics. There, Nico is one of several teens who runs away from home after discovering their parents are members of a supervillain cabal known as The Pride. As the magical heroine Sister Grimm, Nico wields an artifact known as the Staff of One. It allows her to cast any spell she can imagine, but with the caveat that she can only cast each spell exactly once.

It’s clear the series is giving us a fairly loose adaptation of Nico, and one who seemingly has no ties to the various other Runaways characters. Still, we’d expect Season 2 to delve much deeper into her magical background and the circumstances that caused her to become separated from her birth parents. Does this Marvel Universe have its own version of The Pride?

The Game-Changing Parker Family Secret

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man saves its biggest plot twist for last. We see Kari Wahlgren’s Aunt May leave the apartment to run a seemingly innocuous errand, only for May to travel to a prison to meet with an inmate. That inmate turns out to be none other than Peter’s father, Richard Parker.

One of the few constants with Spider-Man is the fact that he’s an orphan raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. His parents are always killed when he’s a young boy. The comics once toyed with the idea of Richard and Mary Parker still being alive, but that was revealed to be a ruse. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man flips the script by revealing that his father is not only alive, but imprisoned for a mysterious crime.

This raises all sorts of questions for the future of the series. Why is Richard in prison? Is Mary Parker still alive, too? Did Richard have something to do with his wife’s death? And why is May skulking about and hiding the fact that she’s visiting Richard? We assume Peter knows his father is alive (that’s too big a secret to just keep from a child), but does Peter have any sort of relationship with him?

We imagine Season 2 will address those questions and explore exactly what it means for this version of Spider-Man to be a teen with a living, breathing father. Richard clearly has an interest in what Peter has been up to, but does he have Peter’s best interests at heart? And how does he feel about a man like Norman Osborn becoming a father figure to Peter? There’s plenty of juicy drama to mine in Season 2, especially if Richard winds up becoming an antagonistic force in Peter’s life. Heck, for all we know, he’s the one that becomes Venom or Green Goblin.

What do you think about the major changes introduced in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: Season 1? Which iconic Spider-Man villain do you most hope to see in Season 2? Vote in our poll and let us know what you think in the comments below:

For more on Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, check out IGN’s full review of Season 1 and learn why one Spider-Man moment is key to the series’ success.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.