For Jake Johnson, Peter B. Parker has not just been another voice role, another fan-favorite character, or another strange branch on the Spider-Man family tree. Speaking with Mike DeAngelo on The Playlist’s Bingeworthy podcast while promoting Apple TV’s upcoming darkly comic thriller “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed,” Johnson said his connection to the character has run deeper than almost any role he has played.
Asked about Peter B. Parker’s arc in “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse,” Sony Pictures Animation’s upcoming conclusion to the “Spider-Verse” saga, Johnson immediately pushed back on the idea that the movie should mark the end of the character’s story. The film is currently set to open in theaters on June 18, 2027.
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“Well, I surely hope it’s not his final arc,” Johnson said. “I haven’t loved playing a character the way I loved playing Peter B. It might be the character I’ve loved playing the most. Mind you, Nick Miller, all these characters, Lowery, they do mean a lot to me.”
Johnson’s Peter B. Parker began “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” as a weary, schlubby, emotionally wrecked Spider-Man who had drifted far from the clean mythology usually attached to the character. By “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” he had become a father, carrying baby Mayday Parker through the multiverse and finding a softer, funnier version of himself. But Johnson suggested the next film may push Peter beyond the dad-comedy version of the character and back toward a closer approximation of full superhero mode.
“There’s something about playing him and growing up caring about Spider-Man, and as I’ve aged, watching a new generation kind of take over everything and do it in their way, which is wonderful,” Johnson said. “I’m a big fan of Tom Holland, both on and off screen. I think he’s just a winner.”
“But I’m a lot older. My Peter is different,” he continued. “And so, without saying anything, because I don’t know much, we’ve recorded some stuff. And what I will say, there’s some stuff in there and some sequences that I think are going to blow people away. And I know people are going to love it.”
For Johnson, the appeal of Peter B. Parker now is not just that he survived failure, divorce, depression, and the self-pity spiral of “Into the Spider-Verse.” It is that fatherhood did not have to end the character’s usefulness as a hero. If anything, Johnson sounded excited by the idea that Peter’s next chapter could treat parenthood as something that deepens him rather than sidelines him.
“My big thing is, I’m really excited to see Peter B. Parker back to being Spider-Man because I loved the first one, he’d given up, and he sees it,” Johnson explained. “And then I thought the second one was so cute with kids. But you know this,s as somebody with kids yourself, you spend a couple of years where you turn into a real soft version of yourself. And you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I have emotions!’ I didn’t realize I had emotions until I had kids. And I was like, ‘I can feel things.’ Then all the stuff you used to care about, you stop caring about. And you’re like, the only thing that matters is them.”
Johnson then pointed to the stage after that—the one where a parent realizes that devotion to their kids does not mean giving up the rest of who they are.
“Another thing happens where you go like, ‘Well, I’m not dead yet.’ And there are things that I care about,” he said. “And then you realize, and I’m stronger now than I’ve ever been. And that’s what I’m excited about, the next chapter of Peter B. Parker, that he’s not 80.”
“You know, like we got to remember that, yes, he’s a different version,” Johnson added. “But once you have kids and you enter that phase of life, that doesn’t mean you’re dead. You might be entering an unthinkably strong period of your life. And so I hope Peter’s honored in that way. And the future that goes on for him, if it does, I want to see my Spider-Man being Spider-Man.”
DeAngelo also floated the idea of an animated Peter B. Parker spin-off, possibly built around the character’s family life. Johnson sounded open to it, though he acknowledged that any project involving a Peter Parker variant can be difficult to navigate.
“I know it’s hard with anything that involves Peter Parker,” Johnson said. “So I know, you know, like ‘Spider-Noir’ that looks so good. I’m very excited for Lamorne Morris on that. But I think anything with Peter B. is a little bit trickier. But if they crack the code, I’d love to do it.”
For now, Johnson is part of “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed,” Apple TV’s 10-episode thriller from creator and showrunner David J. Rosen, with Tatiana Maslany leading the series as a newly divorced mother pulled into blackmail, murder, youth soccer, and a possible conspiracy. The series premieres globally on May 20, 2026, with two episodes, followed by weekly episodes through July 15.
“Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse” opens June 18, 2027. More from this interview soon – Additional reporting by Mike DeAngelo
