Marvel Studios President, Kevin Feige has confirmed that Peter Parker will be facing more street-level threats as opposed to global extinction events and multiversal cataclysms in his next movie, thus allowing the character be a more grounded and “proper Spider-Man”.
And joining Peter in his newfound gig as a proper friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is none other than Jon Bernthal’s Punisher, fresh off his own character’s Daredevil: Born Again jailbreak and apparently in the mood for some quality rooftop monologuing with a confused 20-something in spandex. Though it should be noted that Born Again season 2 releases in March of next year, four months before the release of Brand New Day, so we presume there will be some major character developments for Frank Castle leading into his MCU film debut.
Here is what Feige had to say about Holland’s Spider-Man in his fourth feature MCU movie:
“I think there’s a promise at the end of No Way Home, that for as sad as it is that Peter is forgotten by everyone in his life, we are seeing for the first time in the Tom Holland Spider-Man stories him being a proper Spider-Man. Him being by himself, dedicated to saving the city, and dealing with — for lack of better terms — street-level crime, as opposed to world-ending events.”
Translation: There will be less a multiversal meltdown and more carjackings and purse-snatchings.
Feige, who is clearly trying to win back fans who miss the good ol’ days when Spider-Man’s worst enemy was rent, also teased what could be one of the most violent buddy cop pairings since Lethal Weapon, saying:
“So when you do that, you say, okay, who are the other street-level characters that we’ve never seen him interact with? And of course, I love that The Punisher started in a Spider-Man comic. That great cover… I don’t want to say too much, but Destin — I will say too much — Destin is doing an amazing job right now on that movie, which starts shooting very soon. And he’s got eight or nine comic covers up on his wall in his art department that he is bringing to life in this movie, which is super cool.”
That’s right—Destin Daniel Cretton, known for writing and directing Shang-Chi, is directing this spiritual reset of the Spider-Man saga. And if Feige’s words are any indication, this film is going to look like someone dumped an entire longbox of gritty ’70s Marvel comics into the blender and hit “punish.”
Now, there’s no confirmation yet on whether Bernthal’s Frank Castle will be friend or foe to Holland’s Peter Parker. But let’s be honest: the chances of them going from rooftop enemies to grimacing allies by the third act are all but guaranteed. We just hope that Charlie Cox’s Daredevil shows up to knock some crooks on the back of the head with a billy club once or twice.
So buckle up, true believers. Because Spider-Man: Brand New Day is shaping up to be the post-No Way Home palate cleanser we didn’t know we needed: less cosmic spaghetti, more blood on the knuckles. And if we’re lucky, we might finally get to see Spider-Man dodge bullets from someone without a doctorate in quantum physics.
