‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ review: Thrilling Marvel sequel offers spectacle and emotion in equal measure

Dir: Destin Daniel Cretton. US. 2026. 145mins  

Boasting a more emotional, mature tenor than its predecessors, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a rousing adventure that finds Tom Holland exuding newfound gravitas in the title role. This sequel forces Peter Parker to live with the repercussions of what occurred at the end of 2021’s No Way Home, which saw the young superhero erase himself from everyone’s memory, including those he loves, in order to save the world. Now alone and facing dangerous foes, Spider-Man must grow up, a rewarding transformation befitting a consistently smart, thrilling blockbuster.

Holland brings necessary pathos to his portrayal

With Sony unveiling Brand New Day this week, the studio will hope to match the astronomical grosses enjoyed by No Way Home, which collected $1.9bn worldwide. The Marvel brand has been tarnished in recent years thanks to the disappointing returns for The Fantastic Four: First Steps ($522m), Thunderbolts* ($382m) and Captain America: Brave New World ($415m), but a Spider-Man picture buoyed by strong reviews and glowing word-of-mouth should help restore the company’s lustre, building excitement for December’s supersized Avengers: Doomsday. 

Now that no one knows his true identity, Peter (Holland) has diligently carried on being Spider-Man while watching his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and true love MJ (Zendaya) move on with their lives. Soon, however, he starts to notice that his body is undergoing strange changes as a result of the ungovernable arachnid hormones within him. Fearing that he is rapidly losing the ability to control his powers, Peter seeks help from Professor Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) while confronting a dangerous, mysterious new villain who can jump from person to person, inhabiting their consciousness like a parasite. 

Jon Watts directed Holland’s first three Spider-Man films, starting with 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, but this time the job falls to Destin Daniel Cretton, who helmed Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings and co-created the Marvel television series Wonder Man. Brand New Day features plenty of terrific action sequences as well as the expected wry one-liners and comedic asides. (Jon Bernthal’s no-nonsense vigilante The Punisher serves as Spider-Man’s sidekick and gruff comic foil.) But the film’s most satisfying element is the screenplay from writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, who give serious consideration to how Peter would cope with being cut off from those closest to him.

Holland brings necessary pathos to his portrayal as this Queens superhero tries to bury himself in crimefighting as a way to forget MJ and Ned. Eventually, though, Peter will not be able to resist peeking in on them, which results in some of Brand New Day’s funniest and most touching moments. Holland’s scenes with Zendaya are especially affecting, demonstrating the characters’ formidable chemistry, even if MJ cannot fully understand why she feels like she knows this stranger. Amidst the plot twists and superhero spectacle, Cretton and composer Michael Giacchino concoct some nicely romantic sequences as Peter and MJ swing high above the city together.

Not much can be revealed about the particulars of Spider-Man’s latest nemesis, but Brand New Day is thrilling when it introduces the character’s ability to leap from body to body, making every innocent bystander a potential threat. For a film filled with impressive effects work, perhaps Brand New Day’s greatest is its simplest, with random extras convulsing in disturbing fashion as the villain “jumps” between them while Spider-Man gives chase. What can be said about the character is that this individual will ultimately connect to Peter’s larger worries about being an outcast and how his powers are more curse than gift. These themes are de rigueur in a Spider-Man film, but Holland’s vulnerability ensures that they feel potent, adding a melancholy to the proceedings as Peter learns true independence.

Too often, Marvel pictures are burdened with egregious cameos from peripheral superheroes who will be important in future instalments. Brand New Day largely sidesteps this issue, finding an organic way to insert Ruffalo’s mournful Hulk and Bernthal’s lovably brutish Punisher. The film benefits from an especially strong ensemble highlighted by Severance’s Tramell Tillman as a diligent government agent and The Bear’s Liza Colon-Zayas playing a dogged detective who worries that Spider-Man may be taking too many risks. 

But as good as the supporting cast is, Brand New Day eventually returns to the three characters who have been essential to this series’ success since Homecoming: Peter, MJ and Ned. The longer Peter is away from his de facto family, the more he realises he needs them. By Marvel’s standards, Brand New Day’s stakes might be relatively minor, but Cretton lets us understand that, for Peter, love and friendship are as epic as the fate of any planet.