Peter Parker has never really started from zero before. Not even close. And that is where Spider-Man: Brand New Day picks him up: no Tony Stark, no Aunt May, no team, nobody on the planet who remembers his name. It’s the first MCU Spider-Man film built around the character’s classic street-level, friendly-neighbourhood roots, stripped of the found family the last three films built around him.
That’s also the challenge director Destin Daniel Cretton inherited when he took over the franchise from Jon Watts, who directed Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home. IGN India got an early look at roughly 30 minutes of the film ahead of its July 31 release and sat down with Cretton to talk through how he approached rebuilding Spider-Man from nothing, such as from the video-game-inspired action to the real off-script chemistry between Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal, and how Peter’s isolation might be changing him in ways that go beyond the emotional.
Read our full interview below.
This is the first MCU Spider-Man film built around the classic, friendly neighbourhood street-level version of the character. He only has a small apartment, and no team around him. What did you have to step back from — from the theme of the last three films to get back to show us this version of the character?
Cretton: I think this version of the character was a natural extension of where the last movie left off, and the moment that this spell was cast, erasing Peter Parker from the memory of everybody on the planet, you automatically are starting the character from a place of isolation. He also didn’t have a Tony Stark. He didn’t have an Aunt May. He literally starts this movie with zero relationships, which I found to be a very interesting place to start him, and it allowed us to pull back and look a little deeper into Peter Parker, the character — which really extended not only to the emotion that we were exploring, but also to the way that we were capturing the city and the way that we were capturing the choreography of the fights. Everything came down to a ground level.
Peter’s powers evolve under the pressure of isolation. His eyes go black, he becomes more aggressive, and he develops organic webbing. So what’s happening there? And can you walk us through how you wanted that transformation to feel on screen, especially in the moment he thinks he might be turning into something that’s almost, like, monstrous.
Cretton: Well, what we wanted to capture was the feeling of what many of us feel when we are isolated, or when we feel like we are the only people on the planet. And loneliness and isolation, even to a normal human, has mental ramifications and physical ramifications. And the big question we are asking ourselves is if that can happen with a normal person — when the normal person is isolated, what would happen to Peter Parker who is part spider? What would happen to him when he is completely shutting down his humanity? And what you’re seeing little glimpses of is what we imagine would happen to Peter if he has completely shut down his human side.
Talking about loneliness, this film isn’t just about being single or missing his friends. It’s that literally no one remembers him, so he can’t even be comforted by someone else acknowledging what he’s lost. That’s a strange, almost sci-fi kind of grief. How did you and Tom find a way to physicalise that on screen, since it’s not like he can turn to another character and say “you don’t understand what I’m going through,” what did you use instead to make the audience feel the weight of it?
Cretton: I mean, a lot of it is in the cinematography and the way that we’re shooting Peter Parker alone in the middle of a city full of people. He also, I think it’s quite relatable that he has one kind of simple AI computer that allows him a little bit of — I wouldn’t even say companionship, but it does give him some something to talk to. But of course, none of this is enough to feed the human side of him that needs to be fed.
You came to superhero filmmaking from independent dramas like Short Term 12 and Just Mercy. How did that background in character-driven storytelling shape the way you approached Peter’s emotional arc in this film, compared to the spectacle side of a usual Marvel movie?
Cretton: I think my brain always thinks character first. Even in the middle of a big action sequence or a fight sequence — this movie has a lot of spectacle — but in the midst of that, I am constantly trying to find ways to highlight the character journey and the heart of each of these characters. And once I lose that thread in a big movie, that’s when I lose interest. So I think audiences, even in the big spectacular moments of this movie, will find that they are still very connected to Peter Parker and his journey. And I can’t wait to see how people respond to that.
There are some web-slinging scenes in the film and the trailer that reminded me of some Spider-Man games, such as the ones from Insomniac Games. Did you look for inspiration in the video games and what are some things that fans of these video games should be looking out for when they’re watching Brand New Day?
Cretton: I mean, one of the fun things about making this movie was that our crew — there were full of Spider-Man fans, diehard Spider-Man fans, and in our action design and our stunt team, a lot of them were not only fans of the movies and the comics, but were also fans of the video games. So, you will see a lot of inspiration pulled from the video games and different moves that they were able to do while playing those games. They would bring those ideas to us and do screen captures of different moves that they wanted to try to do in live action. So, if you keep your eyes open, you’ll see a lot.
Now that MJ has no memory of Peter at all, are we allowed to wonder if there’s a new romantic thread waiting for Spider-Man in this film?
Cretton: Yes. I think anybody could wonder that (laughs).
Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal are famously close off-screen. Were there ever any moments where the two of them went sort of off-script and did their own thing on camera?
Cretton: I mean, those two went off script all the time on this movie (laughs), and it was very fun to watch. Of course, every scene, we know, what needs to be said in order to move the plot forward, but we often would run two cameras simultaneously when those two were on screen together, to allow them the freedom to go off book and improvise. And they had a lot of fun doing that, and I had a lot of fun shooting them.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is releasing in theatres on July 30.
Rayan Sayyed is the deputy editor for IGN India who writes and speaks on pop culture, spanning from games, anime, manga to films and everything in between. You can reach out to him at [email protected], or find him on Twitter/X @rayanaver and Instagram @rayansayyed
Got any news tips, or want to discuss a possible story? Email us at [email protected] (to reach out with confidential tips, click here). For the latest on gaming, entertainment, pop culture, anime/manga, follow IGN India on Instagram, X, Facebook, and WhatsApp. For the latest videos, subscribe to us on YouTube.
