Spider-Man: Brand New Day

• 1. Introduction

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  Spider-Man: Brand New Day drew 718.6 million trailer views in its first 24 hours, according to the research firm WaveMetrix. That was nearly double the 365 million views earned by Deadpool & Wolverine in 2024, the previous film record. It also passed the 24-hour mark set by the video game Grand Theft Auto VI. Within four days the trailer crossed 1.1 billion views, the first film trailer to do so.

  The film behind those numbers is a Sony Pictures release made with Marvel Studios and Pascal Pictures. Tom Holland stars as Peter Parker, and the film was intended as the 38th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yet its own star once admitted that he was unsure he should keep playing the role at all.

  How does a franchise travel from that doubt to a record-setting trailer? Why is Spider-Man fighting street-level crime in New York instead of world-ending threats? And what does a comic book storyline from 2008 have to do with any of it?

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• 2. A Reluctant Hero

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  In August 2019, Sony was reported to be developing a fourth MCU Spider-Man film while it prepared the third, Spider-Man: No Way Home. Later that month Sony said it would make No Way Home without Marvel Studios or its president, Kevin Feige. Talks to update the deal between the two companies had failed. Fans reacted badly, and Sony and Marvel's parent company Disney went back to the table. By the end of September, a new agreement let Feige and producer Amy Pascal make the film together.

  Tom Holland's own future was less settled. In February 2021 he said No Way Home was the last film in his contract, though he hoped to keep playing Peter Parker. By November 2021 he was voicing doubts. He said he would feel he had done something wrong if he were still playing the character in his thirties. He even floated a film about the Miles Morales version of Spider-Man instead. Pascal, meanwhile, said that same month that the next film would open a new trilogy with Holland.

  Feige tried to calm fears of another split. He promised that the partnership would not break down the way it had during No Way Home, and he said Holland's Parker would return at some point. Holland's hesitation still lingered in 2023. He worried about the stigma around fourth films in a franchise. He also felt the team had hit "a home run with our first franchise and there's a part of me that wants to walk away with my head held high and pass the baton".

  The turn came after the writers' strike ended in late September 2023. In November, Holland said he would only return if the film would "do justice to the character". In meetings with the studios he brought what fans had been saying online since No Way Home, because "we make these movies for the fans". He pitched that Parker's powers should go through puberty-like changes. The creative team liked this "kernel of an idea" and developed it. Because Holland joined the process so early, he had more input on this story than on any earlier Spider-Man film.

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• 3. Finding a Director

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  Writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, who had worked on the three previous Spider-Man films, were back on the script by February 2023. That month Feige said the story had "big ideas". Work paused in May because of the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, and Pascal said it would resume once the strike ended.

  Jon Watts, who directed the earlier trilogy, was the studio's first expectation. In April 2022 he left Marvel's Fantastic Four film, and Sony still counted on him returning for Spider-Man. A month later, Sony chairman Tom Rothman said he hoped the whole group from the previous films would come back. In July 2024 Feige said Watts might be too busy, and Watts ultimately chose not to direct.

  Early in 2024, journalist Jeff Sneider reported that Marvel was considering Drew Goddard and Justin Lin. By September 2024 the top choice was Destin Daniel Cretton, who was in early talks. Cretton had directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in 2021, and in December 2021 he signed an overall deal with Marvel Studios. That deal included a Shang-Chi sequel and the Disney+ series Wonder Man. In July 2022 he was hired to direct Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, but he stepped down in November 2023 because of schedule delays. That film was later reworked into Avengers: Doomsday. The fourth Spider-Man film became the priority over a Shang-Chi sequel.

  Schedules were the other puzzle. In October 2024, Holland said he had read a draft with Zendaya and felt it still needed work. He called fitting into the overall MCU plan "a tall order but definitely achievable with the fantastic people we have working on it now". Soon afterward he and Cretton were confirmed, and the film was set for release on the 24th of July 2026. Zendaya was busy with the third season of Euphoria and the film Dune: Part Three, while Holland had Doomsday and The Odyssey. In December 2024, Sneider reported that her role had been "severely reduced". Zendaya and Jacob Batalon were confirmed in June 2025, though the size of their roles was still unclear.

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• 4. Street-Level Spider-Man

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  The story begins with a spell. At the end of No Way Home, Dr. Stephen Strange's magic made the whole world forget that Peter Parker exists. Four years later, Parker protects New York City anonymously and investigates a powerful new threat. Cretton said Parker is "dedicating his entire existence" to being Spider-Man.

  Feige described the ending of No Way Home as a promise that audiences would see Holland as a "proper Spider-Man" for the first time. The hero is on his own and fights street-level crime rather than "world-ending events". Feige pictured Parker "living in a rather sad, small apartment, listening to the police scanner and going out and using his great power responsibly". Holland called it a "profound" story, and he said Parker's selflessness would have consequences for his personal life and health.

  That direction invited street-level characters whom Holland's Spider-Man had never met. Feige pointed out that the Punisher, Frank Castle, first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #129, from February 1974. Jon Bernthal returns in the role, following the Disney+ special The Punisher: One Last Kill. Feige said Castle would have a "different tonality" here, since the film's rating cannot hold the violence of his earlier appearances. Holland acknowledged the concerns and said the filmmakers found "fun ways to get around" the swearing and violence. During filming, Holland and Bernthal improvised, and their characters went from hating each other to a "big brother/little brother rivalry". Castle's Battle Van from the comics appears in live action for the first time.

  Cretton kept eight or nine comic book covers on the art department wall, planning to recreate them. They include The Amazing Spider-Man #134, from July 1974, showing a fight with Tarantula. Another is issue #345, from March 1991, in which Boomerang attacks.

  Without Tony Stark's money, Parker builds his own technology. That includes an artificial intelligence called E.V. and a homemade fabricator that Cretton called a "3D printer on steroids". His new suit resembles the one from the end of No Way Home, which he designed after meeting the Spider-Men played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Holland liked the idea of Parker "trying to be his big brothers, that he looks up to them and sees little details on their suits that he thinks are really cool". Costume designer Sanja Milkovic Hays returned, and Holland said the new suit is built so differently that it is comfier and more flexible.

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• 5. Allies and Rogues

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  Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner now teaches quantum mechanics as a professor at Empire State University. Parker turns to him for help with his changing powers. Banner wears an inhibitor that suppresses the gamma radiation in his body so that he stays in human form. That device was introduced in Shang-Chi and explained in the series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.

  Ruffalo's role came together late. Aaron Couch and Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter said it only "firmed up" as the script took shape before filming. In early September 2025, Ruffalo himself said he was "still waiting to hear" about his part. Couch and Kit noted that each earlier MCU Spider-Man film had a major co-star: Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson and Benedict Cumberbatch. They felt this one was "stacking the deck" by featuring both Ruffalo and Bernthal, and they compared the approach to the Marvel Team-Up comic books.

  The villains lean on Spider-Man's past. Michael Mando returns as Mac Gargan, the Scorpion, a criminal in armor with a mechanized scorpion-like tail. Spider-Man captured him in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and a mid-credits scene in that film teased more story for him. Marvin Jones III plays Lonnie Lincoln, the crime boss Tombstone, who has albinism, near-indestructible skin and superhuman strength. Jones had already voiced another version of the character in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Boomerang, Tarantula and the organization called the Hand also appear.

  Parker's personal circle has changed as well. Zendaya's MJ is attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Ned Leeds, and she has a new love interest, played by Eman Esfandi. Ned has built an app called Spider-Tracker, hoping to learn who Spider-Man is so he can thank him. Sadie Sink was cast in March 2025 after rumors that she could play Jean Grey, and Sneider later reported that she does. Tramell Tillman plays a character named Bill. Tony Revolori and Martin Starr appear only in photographs, as Flash Thompson and Roger Harrington.

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• 6. Shooting Across Britain

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  Cameras began rolling on the 3rd of August 2025 in Glasgow, under the working title Blue Oasis. Brett Pawlak returned as cinematographer from many of Cretton's earlier films, and the Jackie Chan Stunt Team coordinated the fights. Production spent around two weeks in Glasgow city centre, using Merchant City, George Square and Trongate to stand in for New York. One of the film's action set pieces was shot there too.

  Holland was glad to open with location work. It reminded him of making Homecoming, since No Way Home had been confined to soundstages by the COVID-19 pandemic. Fans spotted details in the set photos. Armored vehicles carried a red demon logo, and Bradley Russell of Total Film compared it to the Inner Demons gang, led by Mister Negative in the comics. Paul Trainer of Glasgow World reported a reference bust shaped like a rhinoceros head, which recalled the comic book character Rhino.

  The crew then moved around England. Filming took place at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey on the 7th of August 2025, and the Glasgow shoot was extended to the 18th of August for a commercial. Soundstage work at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire filled most of September. On the 19th of September, Holland suffered a mild concussion while filming a stunt there. Production at Pinewood paused until the 29th of September because the team could not shoot around his scenes. The delay was not expected to affect the release date.

  Other locations followed, including Battersea Park and Senate House in London, Fanum House in Basingstoke, and Ravenscourt Park. Throughout November, the production filmed at HM Prison Dorchester in Dorchester. On the 19th of December, Cretton announced that filming had wrapped, calling the job "one of the roles of a lifetime". Holland said it was "the most creatively fulfilling filming experience" he had ever had.

  Post-production brought more work. In January 2026, Deadline Hollywood's Justin Kroll reported that Feige had focused on Doomsday and its sequel Avengers: Secret Wars, leaving Pascal to handle much of this film. In April, Holland said additional photography in London would add humor and fold in a villain plotline. He called it "icing on the cake". Nat Sanders and Gina Sansom are the editors, and Jerome Chen supervises visual effects. Michael Giacchino was confirmed in December 2025 as composer, writing for a Spider-Man series he already knew.

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• 7. A Name From the Comics

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  At Sony's CinemaCon panel at the end of March 2025, the title was announced as Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Holland appeared by video message. The name comes from a 2008 comic book storyline that reset Spider-Man's status quo after the 2007-08 storyline "One More Day". Holland said it fit because the film was a "fresh start", and he later called it a "rebirth... something completely new" that felt like "the first movie in the next chapter".

  Commentators immediately wondered how closely the film would follow the comics. Diego Peralta of ComicBook.com asked whether Parker might make a deal with Mephisto to bring back his aunt May Parker, who dies in No Way Home. Kevin Erdmann of Screen Rant noted that both comic storylines were controversial with readers, partly because they undid Spider-Man's growth. He thought the film could follow a similar path without repeating that mistake.

  The marketing began on the 1st of August 2025, which is known as Spider-Man Day. Sony released a nine-second teaser of the new costume, with comics-accurate red and blue, raised webbing and the faint hexagonal pattern from Holland's earlier suits. Michael McWhertor of Polygon likened the raised webbing to the Maguire suits. James Whitbrook of Gizmodo saw a trace of the metallic blue from the end of No Way Home. A twenty-second teaser the next day showed the full costume, with a bigger chest spider logo and Giacchino's Spider-Man theme.

  The first trailer arrived on the 18th of March 2026. The day before, Sony partnered with fans and content creators worldwide to release short clips. Rebecah Jacobs of Men's Journal and Kaitlyn Booth of Bleeding Cool both called the rollout a scavenger hunt. Booth was the more critical, and Tom Bacon of ComicBook.com questioned the "vibes-based" atmospheric shots without context. Zack Sharf of Variety thought the "gloomy, slow-motion aesthetic" felt closer to Zack Snyder's films than to earlier Spider-Man films.

  Several commentators noticed Spider-Man swinging with a civilian, an homage to the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15 from August 1962, his debut comic. The footage also showed Parker's powers mutating, with organic web shooters and black eyes. Some viewers thought this adapted "The Six Arms Saga" from The Amazing Spider-Man #100-102 (1971), which Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1995-96) also adapted. Others pointed to the 2005-06 crossover "The Other". Rothman and Holland then introduced footage at CinemaCon in April.

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• 8. Release Calendar

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  Sony Pictures Releasing scheduled Brand New Day for the 31st of July 2026 in the United States, as part of Phase Six of the MCU. Select international markets are expected to get it in IMAX. The slot was originally the 24th of July. Disney had planned an unspecified Marvel Studios film for that date, but removed it from its schedule in August 2024, which let Sony claim it.

  In February 2025, Sony pushed the film back one week because of The Odyssey, which opens earlier in July. Most IMAX screens were expected to go to that film for around two weeks. The move meant Brand New Day would open two weeks after it instead of one. Sneider also reported that Sony did not want to release it in the same year as the animated Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, which was later scheduled for 2027.

  The film's life after theaters was settled years earlier. In April 2021, Sony signed deals with Netflix and Disney for its 2022-2026 slate. Netflix took exclusive "pay 1 window" streaming rights, typically an 18-month window, which covered Spider-Man films after No Way Home. Disney took "pay 2 window" rights, with films streaming on Disney+ and Hulu and airing on its linear networks.

  In January 2026, Sony and Netflix announced a new agreement giving Netflix "pay 1 window" rights worldwide. The previous deal had covered only the United States, Germany and Southeast Asia. The new terms begin later in 2026 as territory rights become available, and they take full effect in early 2029.

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