Sony Pictures has released the final trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the next Tom Holland Spider-Man film and the follow-up to 2021’s No Way Home. The movie is due in theaters in two weeks, putting the trailer in the usual last-chance marketing slot before opening weekend.
Destin Daniel Cretton, who directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, directs Brand New Day. Sony is selling the film as a reset for Peter Parker after No Way Home ended by isolating him from the people who knew him.
That setup matters because the previous film did not leave Peter with a clean superhero victory lap. In No Way Home, Peter asked Doctor Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, to cast a spell that removed him from everyone’s memory. The point was to protect the multiverse and the people closest to him, including MJ, played by Zendaya. The cost was that Peter’s friends moved on without knowing who he was.
According to Sony’s official synopsis, Brand New Day follows Peter as he fights crime full-time in a world that no longer remembers him. Sony says the pressure of watching his former friends continue their lives without him triggers a change in Peter that he may be unable to control. The studio also says that change may be needed to stop a new threat to New York and the people Peter still cares about: a villain Sony describes as powerful and unseen.
Holland returns as Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Zendaya is back as MJ, and Jacob Batalon returns as Ned Leeds, Peter’s former best friend. Their presence suggests the film is not walking away from the emotional mess created by Doctor Strange’s spell, even if the characters inside the story no longer have the same memories the audience does.
The cast list also pulls in several corners of Marvel’s screen machinery. Jon Bernthal appears as Frank Castle, the Punisher. Mark Ruffalo plays Bruce Banner, also known as the Hulk. Charlie Cox returns as Matt Murdock, Daredevil, after appearing briefly as Peter’s lawyer in No Way Home.
Other listed characters give the film a street-level crime roster alongside its superpowered players. Michael Mando plays Mac Gargan, the Scorpion, who was captured by Spider-Man in Homecoming. Marvin Jones III plays Lonnie Lincoln, also known as Tombstone. Liza Colón-Zayas plays detective Jean DeWolf.
The film also includes Eman Esfandi as MJ’s new boyfriend and Trammell Tillman as Bill Metzger of the Department of Damage Control. Sony describes Metzger as part of the agency’s policing of superpowered people, which means Brand New Day is keeping the post-Avengers bureaucracy in Peter’s way. Superhero stories love a monster, but they also love a clipboard with arrest powers.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.
