The Spectacular Spider-Man is an American animated superhero television series developed by Victor Cook and Greg Weisman, based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. In terms of overall tone and style, the series is based primarily on the Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and John Romita Sr. era of The Amazing Spider-Man comics, with a similar balance of action, drama, and comedy, as well as a high school setting. However, it also blends material from all eras of the comic's run up to that point in addition to other sources, such as Brian Michael Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man comics (2000–2011) and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy (2002–2007).
Produced by Marvel Entertainment, Culver Entertainment, Adelaide Productions and Sony Pictures Television, the series aired its first season on The CW starting on March 8, 2008 and ended on June 14 later that year. Its second season premiered on Disney XD in the United States on June 2, 2009 and ended its run on November 18 of that year. The entire series was broadcast in Canada on Teletoon. Although 5 seasons were originally planned (consisting of 65 episodes and direct-to-DVD films), only two seasons aired. The show was cancelled after The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment, giving Disney the rights to Spider-Man shows, while Sony Pictures maintained the movie rights.
Despite its short run, The Spectacular Spider-Man has received widespread acclaim since its initial airing, and is considered to be one of the character's finest adaptations, with praise being given for its mature writing, unique art style, modernized faithfulness to the original comics, and the voice performances of the characters, particularly Josh Keaton's voice performance as the titular character. The series' iteration of Spider-Man made an appearance in the 2023 feature film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, with Keaton reprising his role.
