Overview
- Chris McKenna disclosed on Sunday, September 20, 2026 that early drafts included an imposter Spider-Man who trademarked the Spider-Man brand and forced Peter into a legal fight.
- One abandoned plot had Peter adopt a false persona using the name Ben Reilly when reconnecting with MJ, a choice later judged risky because variants of that name appear in other Spider‑verse projects.
- Another draft sent Peter to Southeast Asia as a lone, boat‑living hero who returns to New York to confront the impostor, and a separate path turned the story into a courtroom comedy with Matt Murdock as Peter’s lawyer.
- McKenna also described a surreal sequence featuring a talking bodega cat that points Peter to a Spider‑Totem and a wider community of beings, showing writers tested mythic tones alongside lighter riffs.
- Sources say the ideas were dropped not for lack of creative interest but because Doctor Strange’s memory spell, character rights held by Sony, and broader MCU continuity made those beats impractical and likely to complicate future stories.