For the first time since the Marvel saga began, Spider-Man: Brand New Day would bring back more classic elements from the original comics.
Whether in his debut appearance in Captain America: Civil War or in his first solo movie, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man didn’t have a proper origin story in the MCU: no radioactive spider bite and no tragic Uncle Ben death (he’s already gone). Thus, the extended universe took a step away from the conventions that had long defined the wall-crawler, as seen in Tobey Maguire’s and Andrew Garfield’s films.
Everything changed with the latest entry, Spider-Man: No Way Home: Aunt May (played by Marisa Tomei) dies and inherits the famous line “with great power comes great responsibility,” just before Doctor Strange’s spell erases Peter Parker from everyone’s memory. The next installment, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, was therefore touted as a throwback to the roots with a more solitary protagonist. If the first trailers and posters didn’t quite make that clear, Marvel boss Kevin Feige confirmed it as well.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Spider-Man: Brand New Day will it be a genuine return to the character’s roots? That’s what several people close to the project told the publication Empire, starting with Kevin Feige:
“He’s living a typical Spider-Man life: he’s in a small, unhappy apartment, he’s listening to police chatter, and he’s using his powers responsibly.”
Up to now, or at least before the No Way Home ending, we had mostly seen upbeat teen movies that tried everything to inject humor and novelty into Spider-Man.
All of that will indeed be ancient history, if director Destin Daniel Cretton is to be believed:
“I think most people, at some point in their lives, have experienced loss. At least that’s true for me, and I think for many, the reaction might have been: ‘Oh well. I’ll just work. I won’t do anything but work.’”
With the deaths of Tony Stark and Aunt May, the loss of friends and the inability to confide in anyone, the theme of grief will naturally take center stage in the continuing story. And that’s true even if the superhero tries to dodge it by throwing himself completely into his work.
As producer Amy Pascal reiterated, the stakes won’t be the same and the saga will require a new approach: [Brand New Day] is a more introspective film […] and its strength lies in emotion, not in worlds that explode.
Is a happy ending still in the cards for this Spider-Man: Brand New Day? Early imagery repeatedly hints at the return of MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon). Could there be a sliver of a chance that the wall-crawler might reconnect with his closest allies? To find out, audiences will have to wait for the film’s theatrical release in U.S. theaters on July 29.
