The highly anticipated Spider-Man: Brand New Day is on the horizon and set to arrive in July 2026. This will be the fourth film starring Tom Holland in the lead role as Peter Parker, while also bringing back Zendaya and Jacob Batalon as MJ and Ned, respectively. The movie is also set to feature Jon Bernthal’s Punisher, Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk/Bruce Banner, and an undisclosed character played by new addition Sadie Sink.
While we don’t know a ton of the specifics of the plot of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it does seem to be picking up on several hanging threads from the previous MCU entries. Bruce Banner still has a way to mostly control the Hulk, nobody remembers who Peter Parker is, MJ and Ned are attending MIT, and the latest trailer shows Peter visiting the grave of Aunt May. However, there’s one specific loose thread that was left behind in Spider-Man: No Way Home that doesn’t seem to be part of the new film.
Though it can be frustrating to see that an exciting cliffhanger of sorts won’t get picked up, a closer look reveals that it would actually be a great thing if Spider-Man: Brand New Day didn’t follow through. It could be saved for a later installment or another MCU property entirely.
The Symbiote Was Left Behind In Spider-Man: No Way Home
Spider-Man: No Way Home famously brought in various villains from old Spider-Man films like Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, and Electro. The big surprise came in the theater when it was revealed that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parkers were also included. That meant a lot was going on, leaving another character to kind of get forgotten about. At the end of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock was pulled into the same universe as the MCU’s Peter Parker.
That set up something intriguing for Spider-Man: No Way Home that ended up mostly being played for laughs. In a quick scene, Eddie Brock was shown at a bar when Doctor Strange’s spell was cast, sending him back to his own universe without ever interacting with Peter Parker. The final shot then revealed that although he went back home, a piece of the symbiote got left behind, which set the stage for the franchise to retell a legendary Spider-Man story.
The tale of Spider-Man dealing with what the symbiote does to him when it takes over is a tried and true Marvel story arc. Even in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, we get a quick glimpse at this happening as one of the “canon events” that every Spider-Man must go through at some point. We haven’t seen that happen to Tom Holland’s iteration and the concept is so popular that fans were excited about it being part of a fourth Spider-Man MCU project. Alas, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
There’s Already A Lot Going On In Brand New Day
Every look at Spdier-Man: Brand New Day suggests that there’s a ton going on. Peter is dealing with being Spider-Man while living a lonely life since people forgot who he is, he’s trying to get back into MJ and Ned’s lives, he’s shown running from the Hulk, he has a friendship of sorts with the Punisher, and there’s a new powerful villain around. On top of that, Peter’s also going through a metamorphosis of some sort where he’s seemingly going through a dangerous evolution.
That’s still not even to mention the fact that he’s shown fighting Scorpion and Tombstone is meant to be part of the film in some fashion. With so much going on, giving us the symbiote story on top of it would be too much. One of the biggest criticisms lobbied at Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the two worst-reviewed Spider-Man movies, is that they tried to do too much. There were too many villains and subplots, which muddled things and hurt the quality of the project.
The people behind the MCU have proven that they can balance things better than most. Captain America: Civil War manages to tell a great Cap story, give us the titular civil war, have a compelling villain, and introduce both Spider-Man and Black Panther to the franchise successfully. Avengers: Infinity War somehow has over a dozen heroes in one movie without feeling overstuffed. Still, doing everything set for Brand New Day and adding a symbiote story would likely be too much.
It’s Good Not To Rehash Spider-Man 3
Another big reason to avoid the symbiote story, at least for the time being, is that we’ve seen it on the big screen before. Spider-Man 3 gave us that story element and while it wasn’t perfectly executed and that was nearly 20 years ago, audiences still aren’t too happy to rehash storylines. There’s a reason the MCU’s take on Spider-Man opted not to show us the origin involving Uncle Ben. We’d seen it twice before and it’s best to avoid redoing it.
Also, the MCU is an ever-evolving franchise that doesn’t seem like it has an end in sight. Just because Brand New Day isn’t tackling the symbiote doesn’t mean that it’ll be forgotten about. Sony isn’t likely to stop wanting to produce Spidey films, so a fifth Tom Holland project is possible and that could touch upon this loose thread. On top of everything noted, Brand New Day also has to, at least in some way, set up Avengers: Doomsday. There likely just isn’t room to over a symbiote story with everything going on.
A symbiote story in a fifth film in a few years gives even more time between it and Spider-Man 3. There’s also the possibility that it never gets done at all. The MCU has several major loose threads that are likely never going to be discussed again, including everything from Eternals, the Council of Kangs, Mephisto’s deal with Riri, Hulk’s son arriving, and Moon Knight’s third personality.
While that would be disappointing, it’s better to just leave it hanging than to shoehorn it into a project like Spider-Man: Brand New Day if you don’t already have a specific plan for it. If Spider-Man: Brand New Day disappoints, then we can look back and wonder if it should’ve used the symbiote arc but all signs point to it being another Spider-Man success, so the MCU likely made the right move.
- Release Date
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July 31, 2026
- Runtime
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150 Minutes
- Director
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Destin Daniel Cretton