There is a lot to unpack in the first trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the Web-Head’s fourth solo outing in MCU, which dropped last week and has since set the world ablaze in an unprecedented manner.
Tom Holland has not appeared onscreen as the web-slinger since 2021’s excellent Spider-Man: No Way Home, which also included the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield versions of the character, not to mention it featured past villains Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), Electro (Jamie Foxx), Lizard (Rhys Ifans), Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), and of course Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe). It was as close to wish fulfillment as a comic book movie can get, a sentiment shared by audiences as the picture went on to gross over $1.9 billion at the global box office, which currently ranks as the eighth highest grossing movie of all time.
Half a decade later, demand for the next Spidey feature has reached a fever pitch, with Brand New Day’s trailer having racked up a mind-boggling 718.6 million views in its first 24 hours, shattering the previous record held by another Marvel flick, Deadpool and Wolverine, which had 365 million views. As pointed out by Variety, what’s even more stunning is that Brand New Day’s trailer already had 373 million views in its first eight hours, beating out Deadpool and Wolverine in a fraction of the time. If you are in need of even more context, the first trailer for the upcoming video game Grand Theft Auto 6 – which is expected to become one of the most profitable media products of all time – earned 475 million views in its first 24 hours, which had previously been the record for any video trailer, period.
Suffice it to say, there is a huge amount of excitement and anticipation for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is hardly surprising, not just because it features one of the most popular superheroes in the world, but also due to the sheer amount of mystery and hype surrounding the narrative, supporting characters, and the tantalizing teasers showcased.
According to the official synopsis, the story here is set four years after the events of No Way Home, which saw Doctor Strange erasing all memory of Spider-Man and Peter Parker from the world in order to save it. Now an adult, Peter deals with his self-imposed isolation by fighting crime as his wall-crawling alter ego, which the trailer makes abundantly clear by showcasing B-tier villains such as Boomerang and Tarantula, not to mention the secretive organization from Daredevil and The Defenders, The Hand, though they seemingly have a bigger part to play in Brand New Day.
The most notable villain in the trailer, however, is Canadian actor Michael Mando’s Scorpion, whose only prior appearance was in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, and even then, he was portrayed as a murderous thug boasting a scorpion tattoo on his neck, but no suit. Thankfully, the trailer offers our first look at Mando in the mechanized suit, calmly but coldly telling Spider-Man to “Stay out of my way”, striking a badass pose while he says it.
Fighting all these villains over the years has taken its toll on Peter both mentally and physically, as he not only seeks to reconnect with his former best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and ex-girlfriend MJ (Zendaya), whose memories of Peter were of course erased, but he also starts to undergo physical changes brought on by mutation, possibly akin to the Man-Spider storyline most famously adapted in Spider-Man: The Animated Series from the 1990s. Peter’s senses are heightened even further, he has become stronger, and has potentially even gained the ability to produce his own webbing, similar to Sam Raimi’s rendition of the character. Whatever the case, Peter must understand and likely learn to harness his newfound abilities, which leads to him consulting with none other than Bruce Banner in the trailer.
Yet Banner (who is rumoured to “Hulk-out” at some point in the movie) is not the only hero , or, in this case, anti-hero Peter encounters and potentially enlists the aid of, as we see him interacting with Frank Castle, AKA The Punisher, and while their relationship is seemingly an acrimonious one going by the blows they trade in the trailer, I’m willing to bet that they will team up at some point in the movie.
What is of particular interest, however, is that there is a pervasive rumour that Castle is closely tied to Sadie Sink’s still undisclosed character, which has become the single most talked about aspect of the movie among fans. There are a wide range of theories as to who she might be playing, but given her distinctly red hair, the most circulated one is that she is playing Jean Grey and that Brand New Day will begin setting up the MCU’s X-Men, and the fact that there was clearly someone mind-controlling multiple characters in the trailer adds credence to this theory, though I’m not entirely sold as of yet. She may also be an ally of The Punisher from the comics, Rachel Cole-Alves, who also boasts a red mane, but for now, we can only speculate.
Additional rumours suggest that Sink’s character may initially be presented as the villain but is instead pursued for nefarious purposes by the Tony Stark-created government department Damage Control. It appears to be led by Bill, played by the Emmy Ward-winning Severance actor Trammell Tillman, who is seen speaking with Spider-Man in one scene, and he may even turn out to be the actual big bad of the movie.
Like I said, there is a lot to unpack in the this first trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and this is without even getting into the fact that Charlie Cox’s Daredevil will very likely make an appearance. This theory only bolstered by the presence of The Hand, not to mention the last action shot of Spider-Man leaping at several ninjas from The Hand in mid-air, but the empty space below him suggests that others have been edited out of the shot. To me, this is as close as you can get to a wink and a nudge from Marvel, since this is exactly what was done in a similar shot in No Way Home, hiding the other two Spider-Men.
There are just so many directions in which Spider-Man: Brand New Day can go, but if there is one thing that is clear from this trailer, just as the latest title suggests, this is a new era for the beloved hero under director Destin Daniel Cretin. And who knows, perhaps the next trailer will further reveal details on the overarching story and the identity of Sadie Sink’s mysterious character.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is set to release on July 31st.