Trivia / Spider-Man: The New Animated Series

• Actor Allusion:
  • Ed Asner portrays a character (a cop) with a thick mustache, who hates Spider-Man and constantly views him as a criminal. Say, that sounds familiar...
  • Also, at the end of her episode, Christina thinks she has discovered Spider-Man's secret identity. Everyone anxiously waits for her answer... only for her to reveal "Meng, the Drip-Den guy" as his true identity. She'd be closer to the truth than you'd think. Rino Romano voiced Meng, and previously voiced Spidey in Spider-Man Unlimited (and the first two PlayStation games).
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Rob Zombie was thrilled to be voicing The Lizard, specifically because he was a Spider-Man character that was closer to a straight-up monster than merely a super-powered being (in short, he fit Rob's aesthetic perfectly).
• Executive Meddling:
  • According to the producers, the network frowned on old people, hence why we barely saw J. Jonah Jameson and didn't see Aunt May (outside of a picture in one episode) or Robbie Robertson.
  • Talon was also originally supposed to be Black Cat until Eve was hired and MTV demanded she be changed to be closer to the singer.
  • According to Brian Michael Bendis, the network also frowned on unique and interesting stories. For example, Bendis pitched a story about how Peter Parker can't break away from college or various other commitments to go and fight the Rhino, which was an inversion on the standard superhero idea of the hero not being able to break from fighting the villain to honour his commitments. MTV snarled at the idea. Fortunately Bendis more-or-less said 'Screw you, I have other outlets' and the idea became Ultimate Spider-Man #28.
• Fake American: Devon Sawa, who voices Flash Thompson, is Canadian.
• Out of Order: Technically, many episodes, thanks to MTV and production order isn't much help, with only the order on the DVD set showing how they fit in continuity, but especially "Head Over Heels" and "The Party", "Head Over Heels" aired after the former and featured a pre-Electro Max Dillon, but "The Party" featured his transformation into Electro.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Kathy Griffin and Jeremy Piven as the creepy, stoic, and seemingly emotionless Gaines Twins.
  • Jeff Fischer, best known for voicing Jeff in American Dad!, voiced Jerk Jock Doug Reisman.
  • John C. McGinley, who usually plays tough guys, voiced a Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense Corrupt Corporate Executive who had no physical skills whatsoever in "Sword of Shikata".
  • Cree Summer, who usually voices Sassy Black Women, voiced straitlaced and serious Professor Williams.
  • Xander Berkeley, who usually plays and voices villains, voices the Mayor of New York City.
  • Stan Lee appears in the penultimate episode. However, instead of the usual funny or heartwarming cameo, here he encourages Spider-Man to take revenge on Kraven.
• Role Reprise:
  • Michael Clarke Duncan reprises his role from Daredevil as The Kingpin.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub of the series, the actors who voiced Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson and Harry Osborn in Spider-Man (Luis Daniel Ramírez, Claudia Motta and Arturo Mercado Jr., respectively) reprised their roles here.
• Screwed by the Network: It was a cartoon on MTV. It was doomed from the start. They burned through the episodes by airing a good chunk of the series with two episodes debuting on the same night for weeks.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Talon was originally going to be Black Cat, but was changed as soon as her voice actress, Eve, was cast.
  • Brian Michael Bendis spoke about how constraining it was to work on the series. Originally it was going to be something like Ultimate Spider-Man, but with a college aged Peter Parker. However, Sony (or MTV or whoever) decided that it would be a movie tie-in instead.
  • In the original script to "When Sparks Fly", Professor Williams was supposed to die when Electro attempted to make her an electric person like him.
  • Had the show gotten a Second Season, Mysterio and the Vulture would've appeared. Kraven would've also return.