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With Spider-Man: Brand New Day just around the corner, Spider-Man fans and casual audiences alike are beyond excited to see what could happen in the new entry in Tom Holland‘s iconic franchise. With how large a departure it is taking from the previous three movies, there’s a lot of potential for what could come to pass in the fourth film.
It’s already clear, thanks to the trailers, that Spider-Man: Brand New Day is taking big steps forward in the series by finally bringing Scorpion (Michael Mando) into the fold — after being teased a whopping nine years ago at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming — and having Peter Parker team up with Punisher (Jon Bernthal). However, there are many other things that people are hoping to see in the 2026 sure-to-be-smash-hit before it releases in a few days.
1
Plenty of Villain Appearances
It’s already pretty well-known that there’s going to be a montage at the top of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, recapping the last four years of the young hero’s life since the ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home. This is going to be where characters like Boomerang and Tarantula — seen in the first two trailers — make their short appearances.
If director Destin Daniel Cretton is going to be covering such a large amount of time since the last installment, this is the perfect chance to reference more niche and classic Spidey villains from his long-running mythology. Villains that will most likely never get the main spotlight should find their 15 seconds of fame here, like Beetle, Cardiac, heck, even the infamous Big Wheel. This would make Spider-Man: Brand New Day kick off with an incredibly strong and jaw-dropping start.
2
Great Spider-Man/Punisher Moments
Tom Holland has gone on record, in an interview with the Empire State Building (as wild as it sounds), describing Spider-Man and Punisher’s relationship in the new flick, saying, “It changed a lot. It evolved a lot as we were shooting, because Jon and I would improvise. It started as this relationship of two people who kind of hate each other, I guess, and as we started improvising, it became this kind of big brother/little brother rivalry. It might be my favorite dynamic I’ve ever seen with Spider-Man.”
With this in mind, audiences have got to see plenty of great Spider-Man and Punisher moments. To only have The Punisher in a very small portion of the film, with Holland teasing a relationship of this caliber, would be a massive disservice. With how different the two of them are, there’s potential for a phenomenal dynamic here, and it could add a lot to Peter Parker’s character arc in the movie. Don’t let us down, guys!
3
More Than One Hulk Fight
With it finally revealed — after being speculated and rumored for quite some time — that Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) is going to have an antagonistic role in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and that the two heroes will be fighting, everyone wants to make sure we see enough of exactly that. What would be a true shame is giving Hulk and Spider-Man an amazing battle and not truly utilizing the opportunity.
Realistically, if Hulk is going to take on Spider-Man, he’s going to absolutely whoop his behind first. The Wall-Crawler is a hero who adapts and is super smart, so it would make sense that Peter would lose his first fight with the not-so-jolly green giant and come back for a second one a lot more ready. This also allows the crew behind the movie to craft another phenomenal action sequence for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Web-Slinger.
4
Consequences With Ned Leeds and MJ
Yes, there are some clear consequences for Peter Parker when it comes to Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) and Michelle Jones-Watson (Zendaya) in that he’s lost them after erasing himself from their memories. However, there should really be some more to allow the conflict of him coming into contact with them again to really sell and have even more of an impact.
There’s an absurd amount of dramatic potential in the chance that the fact they no longer remember Peter, but remember that they were friends of Spider-Man and potentially knew who he was, and that’s messing with their heads. The idea of the young man seeing how much what he did actually screwed with them — borderline taking away some of their own agency in their lives, if one thinks about it — could add so much guilt to his journey of seeing them again.
5
Daredevil
One of the fans’ favorite pairings in Marvel Comics is, without a doubt, Spider-Man and Daredevil. With the MCU Daredevil (Charlie Cox) now in prison, and there being a prison fight scene featuring The Hand of all villains — a predominantly Daredevil-related villain group — there’s a chance that he’s somehow in the film, and boy, are people hyped at the idea of it.
Folks all over the internet are hoping to see Cox make a cameo in the prison as his iconic role, and the chances of it happening are genuinely higher than some would think. The idea of seeing Spider-Man and Daredevil team up is an incredible opportunity to make fans extremely excited and rewarded, with it still making sense within the context of the movie.
6
Lots of Web Swinging
Something that fans have noted over the years of Holland’s trilogy is that there are not as many big web-swinging sequences as in Sam Raimi and Marc Webb‘s franchises. That fans praised the heavens that they finally got a final swing sequence in Spider-Man: Far From Home is proof in the pudding.
There seems to be some cool web swinging in the tank chase sequence in the trailers, but it would be such a treat for Holland to finally get some real, large, spectacle swing sequences like back in the Raimi days. A final swing specifically would be having fans cheering in theaters all over the world, reminiscent of Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s final swing.
7
Peter’s Tinkering
Peter Parker may have had some technical help from Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) back in the day, but he’s all on his own now, meaning he has to use his brains to tinker and make his own gadgets and suits. Back in the Stan Lee era of The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) comic book, the Wall-Crawler was consistently making gadgets on his own to thwart his villains.
Lee had a plethora of fun making Pete a run-and-gun hero, and it would be so much fun to see Peter all on his own making shoddy gadgets to get through his many adventures across the years and to face current foes like the Hulk. Now that he’s on his own, seeing him hodgepodge gadgets together would be so great to see. Fans love a resourceful Spider-Man!
8
Jean Grey
There have been rumors for quite a while that Sadie Sink is playing the villain of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and it’s Jean Grey. With the villain clearly being able to control minds and get into people’s heads, it only makes sense that Jean Grey could be the antagonist. This redhead is one of the strongest telepaths in the Marvel Comics universe and could most certainly cause some trouble for Pete.
This isn’t to say she’d be a full-on villain, because she’ll likely have good reasoning for what she’s doing and will be redeemed if she’s going to be set up for this universe’s X-Men. Getting to see the Wall-Crawler interact with other young heroes (or someone hero-adjacent in this case) would be so satisfying to see, given the fact he’s yet to meet others like Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), despite being a young hero himself.
9
Peter in College
One of the most fun times in Spidey’s early Marvel Comics career was seeing him in college, meeting new people, and balancing college life with being Spider-Man. Now that Peter is out of high school in the MCU, seeing his college life would be some great worldbuilding for the character. It seems he’s going to be attending college based on reports, his clothing choices in the film, and the fact he’s approaching Bruce Banner in a college class.
It’d be very intriguing to see if Peter has connected with new people in college and how he’s handling relationships in this new environment. He’s most certainly avoiding them, but that wouldn’t stop people from potentially wanting to connect with him. It could also give Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment the chance to introduce characters that could definitely exist in college, like Doctor Curt Connors (The Lizard) and Doctor Miles Warren (The Jackal).
10
An Expanded Cast
With this being a completely new era for Spider-Man, they have a chance to bring in a new cast to fill the missing roles of his old supporting cast, like Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), Happy Hogan, Betty Brant (Angourie Rice), Flash Thompson (Tony Revolori) — the entire school cast, pretty much. While keeping a smaller cast of characters will certainly be better for this movie, given the fact that it’s more down-to-Earth, there’s still room to include new players.
It doesn’t even have to be the likes of Gwen Stacy or Harry Osborn — in fact, it might be better that they stray away from those characters, given their inclusion in previous franchises — but they could bring in characters like Felicia Hardy. Even niche characters (for casual moviegoers, that is) like Carlie Cooper, Jean DeWolff, and Randy Robertson could be great options. There are so many to choose from!
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
- Release Date
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July 31, 2026
- Runtime
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145 Minutes
- Director
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Destin Daniel Cretton
- Writers
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Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Steve Ditko, Stan Lee
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https://collider.com/spider-man-brand-new-day-essential-must-haves/
Eddie Possehl
Almontather Rassoul
