Marvel Studios held an animation panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2022 in which it laid out the next year or so of Marvel Cinematic Universe animated series for Disney+. One of the most anticipated shows is Spider-Man: Freshman Year, which is produced by Marvel Studios and has nothing to do with Sony. This is why—according to what they've revealed so far—Freshman Year is not using Peter Parker's MCU origin story.
During the animation panel, fans were not treated to any footage from Spider-Man: Freshman Year, but they did see still images. The most telling scene was framed very similarly to how Tom Holland's Peter Parker met Robert Downey, Jr.'s Tony Stark. Yet in the new image, the rich scientist he was meeting was Norman Osborn. That wasn't the only noticeable difference, and there's a complicated story behind all the changes.
Viewers know from Spider-Man: No Way Home that neither Norman nor Oscorp exists in the main MCU timeline. Another woman appeared to be Aunt May but looked very different from Marisa Tomei's version of the character. There were also familiar Marvel names such as Amadeus Cho and Nico Minuro, but no Ned Leeds, Flash Thompson, Betty Brant or MJ. However, there's a very specific reason for these omissions.
When Spider-Man: Freshman Year was announced, many fans assumed it would be his canon MCU origin story, given how the rights to the character work. That rights situation is why the series can't be connected to the Tom Holland version of the character. While Sony Pictures Entertainment owns the rights to Spider-Man, it doesn't own all of them. What's even more mysterious is how the deal sharing the character actually works, especially since its renegotiation in 2019. There are likely clauses in that contract preventing Marvel Studios from using the Tom Holland-version of the character. This could be why a different actor voices Peter in Freshman Year and What If…?.
As it stands, Sony has first dibs on anything live-action involving Spider-Man on both the big and small screens. They also have the rights to animated feature films like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and animated series with episodes longer than 44 minutes. This is why cartoons like The Spectacular Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man are on Disney+. If Marvel Studios can't use Spider-Man in anything other than animated shows that run 44 minutes or less, they also probably can't use the versions of the characters that appeared in the films.
Given that the upcoming show exists in the era of the MCU Multiverse Saga, it's possible that some characters from Freshman Year could eventually cross over. It's also possible that this version of Spider-Man becomes the one fans see in any multiversal animated series featuring MCU versions (or variants) of the characters Marvel Studios still owns. While it would have been nice to get the canon origin story for the MCU Spider-Man, it doesn't look like we'll get it in Spider-Man: Freshman Year.
Spider-Man: Freshman Year is set to debut on Disney+ in 2023.