[#item_full_content] [[{“value”:”Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)
145 minutesRated PG-13 (sequences of action/violence and language)Directed by Destin Daniel CrettonWritten by Chris McKenna and Erik SommersStarring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, Sadie Sink, Liza Colón-Zayas, Jacob Batalon, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando and Mark RuffaloCinematography by Brett PawlakEdited by Nat Sanders, Gina Sansom, Harry YoonMusic by Michael GiacchinoProduction Companies: Columbia, Marvel and Pascal PicturesOpening July 31, 2026, via Sony Pictures Releasing
For much of its runtime, Spider-Man: Brand New Day feels like the platonic ideal of what was promised in the MCU. It’s a Spider-Man movie through and through, with the cameos and supporting turns feeling organically like the inevitable and always entertaining consequence of a successfully established cinematic universe. While its story and character arcs often feel like a mix-and-match of prior MCU films and earlier Spider-Man features, there is a lively joy and unexpected confidence in the telling.
The picture offers a semi-regular helping of sensational gee-whiz action sequences alongside a game cast of actors offering genuinely fun characters. And yet, the focus during this mostly street-level but visually scrumptious action fantasy mostly remains where it should, namely on Tom Holland’s webslinger, his friendly neighborhood heroics and the personal cost of such now-almost-fanatical altruism. Even amid overplotting and needless (and confusing in the moment) world-building, it’s still a Peter Parker Passion Play.
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The Spider-Man Loneliness Epidemic…
If by some fluke you didn’t see Spider-Man: No Way Home, you should know that, for reasons that this new film amusingly refuses to reiterate even in its past-tense expository prologue, the entire world has forgotten that Peter Parker ever existed. Brand New Day opens after four years of Peter being totally cut off from the world, including his best pal Ned, girlfriend M.J. and whatever financial considerations he might have once gotten from Happy Hogan or whoever is now running Stark Enterprises.
I’ll assume his birth certificate and social security number survived. Yet, I’m still not sure how he can afford to live even in his shambolic apartment or build his glorified Spider-Cave. After all, it’s a major plot point that he spends all of his time doing the costumed superhero thing. That’s just one bit of “comic book logic” that one will have to accept in this otherwise plausible real-world adventure.
That Peter finds himself in an even grimmer situation than most comic-book or on-screen incarnations is probably no coincidence. With no educational or career prospects, no friends, no Avengers on speed dial and both Uncle Ben and Aunt May six feet under, this is a Peter Parker/Spider-Man for the COVID generation growing up amid a loneliness epidemic in a hellish, post-American-Dream economy.
Even amid a movie refreshingly packed with non-heroic supporting characters, cameos and walk-on roles of all shapes and sizes, Peter’s self-imposed isolation feels of the time. As such, when his body starts going haywire in ways that threaten to turn him into more of a spider than a man, that just feels like an insult to injury.
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♫ Yes, time, time, time is on my side, yes, it is! ♫
Just a fair warning to fans of the 1990s Fox cartoon; this very loose adaptation of the season-long “Neogenic Nightmare” story does not feature appearances by Blade nor Peter going full-BrundleFly. Most importantly, it does not feature Morbius running around screaming about how much he needs blood plasma. We ask for so little.”}]] 
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