Hudson Thames, the voice actor for Spider-Man in Marvel’s What If? series and the upcoming Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man attempted to reassure fans by sharing his fear that the show would be “annoying and woke”.

Thames gave his answer in an interview with Collider, saying:

“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.”

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man has come under fire for reimagining Harry and Norman Osborn as black men. Similar anger has also been directed at the inclusion of Nico Minoru, a member of “The Runaways” who some are erroneously assuming to be a “woke” version of Mary Jane.

“Woke” has become an increasingly nebulous term in recent months, with people using it to refer to everything from corporate censorship and tokenism, to unironic bigotry, with culture war schisms being drawn along those lines.

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