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In what is simultaneously a sign of the very real culture wars happening all around us in the US at the moment and an impressive own goal in the promotion of the (genuinely great) new Disney+ series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man series, star Hudson Thames has given an interview in which he says that his “biggest fear” about playing Peter Parker in the series was that the show would be too “woke.”

Yes, really.

Thames gave the interview to Collider, with the exact quote being, “I thought it was awesome. I mean, my biggest fear was that it was gonna be annoying and woke, and it wasn’t, and I was like, ‘Yes, this is great, it’s so well written,’ like it feels real. I’m the oldest of five boys, so I feel like I kind of know what’s happening in their lives and in high school, and it felt like it was doing that justice.”

Let’s look past, for a second, the idea that Peter Parker of all fictional heroes would complain about something being “annoying and woke” feels utterly incongruous with the… well, friendly, neighborhood vibe of the character. (Spidey is, if anything, infamously welcoming and open to everyone; there’s a reason he headlined the comic book series Marvel Team-Up for more than a decade in the 1970s and ‘80s.) Let’s even ignore the fact that the cast of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is notably more diverse than traditional Spider-Man casts with the inclusion of a Black Norman Osborn and the addition of Nico Minoru to the supporting cast, something which might be seen as 'woke' to a certain demographic of closed-minded critics.

What’s perhaps worth noting about Thames’ signaling that the show is “awesome” and purposefully not “woke” comes in the wake of Disney pulling an episode of Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur because its focus on a trans character was seen as “push[ing] ahead discussions around social issues before families can have them themselves.” In December, Disney also pulled a transgender character-centric storyline from the upcoming Pixar animated series Win or Lose. A statement from Disney at the time again reiterated the notion that some subjects should not be addressed in media for children, in the company’s view.

Obviously, Hudson Thames’ dunderheaded commentary is not in the same league as Disney’s censorship, but it’s difficult to ignore the feeling that mainstream genre pop culture is being pulled in a regressive direction that considers “woke” ideas (You know, things like diversity, inclusion, and wanting to tell stories about everyone in the audience) as something to be avoided, or at least considered “not awesome.” When the company that dominates pop culture — Disney’s companies collectively outperformed YouTube in streaming viewing in December, making up 11.2% of all streamed content for the month — is pulling back on freedom of speech and putting its thumb on the scale in such a regressive manner, it’s a dark sign for what lies ahead.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man debuts January 29 on Disney+. Despite Hudson Thames’ wrong-headedness about “woke” concepts, he’s right about it being awesome.

Marvel's most reliable superhero has proven he can do a whole lot more than just 'whatever a spider can.' Swing into Spidey's history with Popverse's 10 best Spider-Man comic books, our Spider-Man movie watch order, and if you want our opinions on the subject, read our articles ranking Spider-Man's actors and Spider-Man's girlfriends.