Following the memory-erasing fallout of No Way Home, Peter is operating entirely alone in New York, cut off from MJ, Ned, and essentially every human being who used to make his life worth living.
Four years have passed. He has devoted himself completely to being Spider-Man full time, which sounds noble right up until you realize that “full time superhero with no friends, no family, and no one who even knows your name” is just a clinical description of a man in crisis. And the latest trailer lays this theme on as thick as possible.
Take a look:
The trailer shows Peter’s mutation accelerating in ways that go well beyond the organic webbing that was already pretty much confirmed, with black eyes appearing and his physiology doing things that bodies simply should not do. Fans are reading this as Peter’s Man-Spider transformation, where Peter mutates into a grotesque six-armed, multi-eyed horror show that makes the alien symbiote look like a minor inconvenience by comparison.
Peter is later shown asking Bruce Banner how to suppress his mutations, which is exactly the kind of question you never want to have to ask someone who spent years as a giant green rage monster. Which turns out to be another major obstacle in Peter’s way this time around.
The threats piling up around him include Scorpion, the Hand, Hulk, and a mysterious hooded figure widely believed to be Sadie Sink playing Jean Grey of the X-Men, a telepath capable of jumping from mind to mind and whom nobody can detect except Peter himself.
Meanwhile, the Hulk appears to have gone full Savage, forcing Peter to square off against one of his former Avengers allies. The Punisher, played by Jon Bernthal, is also circling, which almost certainly has something to do with what Peter is physically becoming. And we can’t wait to see it all unfold next month.
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31.
