Why 2003's Spider-Man Show Isn't Raimi Canon (But Comics & Games Are)
The Sam Raimi Spider-Man franchise includes more content than its iconic film trilogy, including a 2003 animated series that doesn’t share continuity with two of the films, separating it from other spinoff material. Spider-Man: The New Animated Series had only a brief run in 2003, and while it shares a universe with Raimi’s 2002 film, the TV series doesn’t coincide with Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, or the rest of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man universe’s properties, such as its video games and comics. The series does, surprisingly, connect to two other Marvel films, putting 2002’s Spider-Man in a unique position, as far as continuity goes.
The superhero film genre wouldn’t be what it is today if not for Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. While the superhero film genre found success before 2002, Spider-Man broke new ground by having an unprecedented level of naturalism, sincerity, and respect for the comic book source material. The trilogy was, at one point, considered to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with 2008’s Iron Man establishing that Tony Stark created the cephalopod-like robotic arms that Otto Octavius would use as the villainous Doctor Octopus. While these plans were, unfortunately, scrapped due to Sony’s ownership of the Spider-Man film rights, the Raimi universe would eventually interact with the MCU in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Related: What If Tobey Maguire Had Been The MCU's First Spider-Man
Given the massive marketing campaigns for each film, it’s not surprising that the continuity includes far more than just three movies. The Raimi Spider-Man continuity was expanded on by spinoff comics, as well as adapted to video games and novels. In the latter two mediums, storylines and characters who didn’t appear in
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