Spider-Man: Brand New Day is exactly how to make a superhero movie in 2026

If you can believe it, it’s been five years since the last Spider-Man movie (decades, in Marvel Cinematic Universe years), and Spider-Man: Brand New Day might seem superfluous after everyone had their memories wiped of his identity in No Way Home.

How do you come back from that, and how do you make it worthwhile? And how do you meet fan expectations after the box office-topping $1.921billion (£1.44bn) haul of last time?

But Brand New Day has proven my Spidey senses were overcome by scepticism, for the film strips things back a bit to allow its heart and soul – Tom Holland as Spider-Man – to really shine.

Even navigating an older, sadder take on the character, Holland remains just so gosh darn likable as our webslinging superhero, aka Peter Parker, without that wholesomeness ever becoming cloying or ringing false.

Holland has repeatedly said recently that the role of Odysseus’s son Telemachus in The Odyssey – released just weeks ahead of this, his fourth solo Spider-Man adventure – was his last chance to play a boy as he turns 30. But he’s still ever so good at that sincere optimism, even when in darker times.

Spider-Man: No Way Home was part of phase four in the MCU in 2019, followed by the decidedly mixed bag of phase five (The Marvels, Thunderbolts*) before we arrive at this more streamlined phase six, which kicked off last summer with The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Brand New Day proves this more considered and caring approach to releases is working.

Spider-Man continues to be tightly woven into the Marvel movies past and present with quite a few surprises here, beyond just Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk and Jon Bernthal’s Punisher cropping up to offer brain and brawn for Spider-Man, and the revelation of Sadie Sink’s character. But I’ll keep things spoiler-free.

At the start we find Peter in his ‘lonely boi’ era, with no friends and no girlfriend, throwing himself into his crimefighting duties, four years on – we know because we watch him watch MJ (Zendaya) and bestie Ned (Jacob Batalon) throughout their college journey at MIT via Instagram updates. He’s mooning over a couple kissing on the subway and diligently placing flowers at Aunt May’s grave, while his only human relationship appears to be with police detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas).

But at least Spider-Man is thriving, tangling with the likes of Scorpion, Tombstone and The Hand in a cool montage that really leans back into that famous webslinging choreography from the comics, with vibrant slow-motion sequences. 

However, Spider-Man is also confronted with a mysterious villain targeting the Department of Damage Control, hopping from mind to mind and taunting Peter as only he can sense where it is. He then forms an alliance with the department’s new head, Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman), who has more of a rehabilitative approach to the villains they work with.

But that’s not the only threat, as Peter is also battling an increase in his arachnid hormone that frighteningly strips away his humanity while in the spidey suit – and also has him wretching at some of the grislier symptoms, like the newly-organic web matter pooling at his wrists. There’s also an unwelcomingly intense video of a tarantula moulting that his new AI assistant EV (Naomi Watts) – built by Peter as support for his now-solo missions – helpfully plays for him as part of his research.

Meanwhile, he can’t resist being drawn back into the welcoming web of MJ and Ned, now roommates and holding a housewarming party in the neighbourhood.

They may not recognise Peter, but Ned has built the Spidey Tracker – hoping to thank him for the rescues as a highschooler that he remembers – and MJ is restless and reluctant to choose a career path. However, she does have a boyfriend – provoking a genuinely crushing moment of realisation and gentle heartbreak from Holland. 

To no surprise though, despite Peter’s request that he be erased from everyone’s memories to protect the multiverse and the ones he loves, of course MJ ends up getting swept up into danger as Peter grapples with a threat that can get inside this skin more effectively than any before, despite his immunity to its control – without even appearing in human form for almost the majority of the movie.

While a little too long at 145 minutes, returning screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers demonstrate a deft touch in figuring out how to make this Spider-Man film meaningful when surely all it’s aiming to do is undo everything that was purposely done in No Way Home, which was undoing… all that came before? But – well, you’ll see.

A lot of care and attention for the character – and fans – has been shown by them, director Destin Daniel Cretton and Holland. And things are kept light too, with references to ‘super-graphic’ Spidey fan art including eight tentacles, while the movie generally manages to steer away from too much cheese.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in UK cinemas from tomorrow. It releases in the US and elsewhere on Friday, July 31.