How Spider-Man: Brand New Day Ushers In a New Era for Tom Holland's Spidey - IGN

After months of waiting and an endless deluge of rumors and leaks, Sony and Marvel have finally released the first official trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is back in action, and with his return comes a whole new era for the MCU.

The trailer shows off some of the new faces joining the fray in Holland’s fourth Spider-Man movie, all the while raising some big questions about the plot. What’s up with Peter’s powers? How do Hulk and the Punisher fit in? And, perhaps most of all, who the heck is Sadie Sink playing? Let’s break down all the key players in this new trailer and what we do and don’t know about Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Sadie Sink’s Mystery Character

Brand New Day is poised to introduce several new characters to Peter Parker’s corner of the MCU, and we’ll get to them in a bit. But from the beginning, none of these new additions has been more intriguing or head-scratching than the character played by Stranger Things star Sadie Sink. Who is she? Is this a new love interest for Peter? Is she a villain? Both at the same time?

Well, don’t expect the trailer to answer any of those questions. We don’t see much of Sink’s character in this new footage, suggesting that Sony and Marvel are saving the big reveal for the film itself. For now, we might as well break down the online rumors surrounding the character’s identity and how likely they are to pan out.

First things first – Sink may be a redhead, but we highly doubt there’s any truth to the rumor that Sink is playing Mary Jane Watson. The MCU already has its MJ in Zendaya’s Michelle Jones-Watson. Sure, she’s a slightly untraditional take on the MJ character, but that’s been part of the fun. We see no reason why Marvel and Sony would want to mess with that formula.

There is a chance, however, that Sink is playing Gwen Stacy, the other great love of Peter’s life in most versions of the Spidey mythos. If so, the question is whether this Gwen is just a love interest or if she’s destined for Spider powers of her own.

Another early rumor suggested that Sink is playing Shathra, a villain with deep ties to the greater Spider-Verse. Shathra is a wasp goddess who created the Great Nest, an energy force that exists in direct competition to the Web of Life and Destiny that empowers Spider-Man and his fellow Spider-heroes. This rumor is bolstered by the fact that Shathra briefly takes on the civilian identity of Annabelle Adams, another redhead.

That said, nothing about the trailer suggests that Brand New Day is looking to dig this deeply into Spider-Verse lore. Spidey already has enough new and returning villains to contend with.

Is Sink playing Jean Gey, as the rumors suggest?

Currently, the most popular online rumor argues that Sink is playing Jean Grey. As in, the all-powerful X-Man and mutant telepath Jean Grey. Here, again, Sink definitely looks the part, but would Marvel really introduce Jean in a Spider-Man movie of all things? Who can really say?

We do know that Marvel is slowly ramping up to introducing the X-Men of the MCU, even as they give the Fox universe X-Men their final sendoff in Avengers: Doomsday. Brand New Day could be a bridge to director Jake Schreier’s X-Men reboot, with Sink reprising her role in that movie in a few years. But would they actually do this in a film that’s produced in partnership with Sony, effectively allowing Sony control of the first major X-Man introduced in the MCU?

Rumors also point to Jon Bernthal’s Punisher being Jean’s protector. That’s a little ironic, given how much the MCU version of Frank Castle reminds us of Wolverine in terms of his temperament and approach to combat. We’re not entirely sure why Frank would be so invested in protecting Jean, but it stands to reason that her mutant status makes her a fugitive from the law. Perhaps Frank sees her as a surrogate daughter in need of protection.

Finally, there’s the rumor that Sink is playing Rachel Cole, a woman who briefly takes up the mantle of Punisher in the comics after her husband is murdered on their wedding day. That would certainly explain the Punisher connection, but again, why introduce this character in a Spider-Man film of all places? If Sink is playing Rachel, then maybe we’ll see her torn between Frank’s fanatical approach to crimefighting and Spidey’s more hopeful outlook.

What’s Happening to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man?

Brand New Day marks the first time we’ve seen Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in the MCU since 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. The title is pretty self-explanatory here. It really is a brand new day for Peter Parker. He’s got his secret identity back, and he’s ready to redefine himself and his place in this increasingly crowded world of costumed heroes and villains.

Brand New Day shares its name with a 2008 Marvel Comics storyline. The comic book version of Brand New Day was all about bringing Spidey back to basics. Marvel had just undone Peter’s marriage to Mary Jane and restored the character’s secret identity, which he revealed to the world in the Civil War crossover. Brand New Day reestablished a more traditional status quo for Peter as a struggling bachelor and introduced a new supporting cast and lineup of villains.

The movie looks to be doing much the same. Following the end of No Way Home, Peter has reclaimed his secret identity and moved on from his old life. His life is a blank canvas. But one thing the trailer makes clear is that he’s having some trouble filling that canvas. Having lost his connections to friends like Jacob Batalon’s Ned and Zendaya’s MJ, Peter is basically letting his civilian life atrophy and focusing everything on his Spider-Man side. He’s a ghost making his way through a world that no longer remembers Peter Parker.

We suspect that this new movie, and possibly even the next several movies, are about Spider-Man figuring out who Peter Parker is meant to be. “

If the last Spider-Man trilogy was all about Peter discovering what kind of hero he wants to be, then we suspect that this new movie, and possibly even the next several movies, are about Spider-Man figuring out who Peter Parker is meant to be. He can’t have one without the other, and he needs to establish some sort of balance between his personal and superhero lives.

Making matters worse, it’s clear that not everything is going great for Spider-Man. The trailer shows us that Peter’s powers are starting to malfunction. The new movie may be borrowing a page from 2004’s Spider-Man 2, where Tobey Maguire’s Spidey faced his own problems with his powers due to a lack of confidence and resolve. Peter’s personal problems may be weighing on his superhero abilities.

Brand New Day could also be exploring the evolution of Spidey’s powers. There have been several points in the comics where Peter has evolved to become more spider-like and less human. For instance, back in 1972’s The Amazing Spider-Man #100, Spidey temporarily gained an extra four arms after trying to cure himself of his powers. There’s also 2005’s The Other crossover, which saw Peter die in a battle with the villain Morlun and be reborn with new powers from a literal spider cocoon.

Whatever is happening in the movie, it’s not uncommon for Spider-Man to struggle with becoming less human and more spider-y. And that may be exactly why he turns to a certain familiar face from the wider MCU.

How Hulk and Punisher Fit In

Every MCU Spider-Man film has included at least one major Marvel character in a supporting role. 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming had Robert Downey, Jr.’s Iron Man, 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home had Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury and Colbie Smulders’ Maria Hill (well, sort of), and No Way Home had Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange. Brand New Day includes two big names – Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk and Jon Bernthal’s Punisher.

Based on the trailer, it seems as though Peter turns to Dr. Banner for help in understanding his current condition. That makes sense, given that Banner is probably the world’s foremost expert on radiation and its effects on the human body. Peter is mutating, and who better than the Incredible Hulk to figure out what that means?

Of course, we doubt we’re just going to see Ruffalo as Dr. Banner in this film. His Hulk side is almost surely going to come into play. The question is whether Hulk will be fighting alongside Peter, or if he’ll be just one more enemy for our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man to overcome.

As for Punisher, it still remains to be seen exactly how this violent vigilante fits into Brand New Day, but it’s worth remembering that Spidey and Frank Castle have a long history together. In fact, Punisher originally debuted in the pages of 1974’s The Amazing Spider-Man #129. Before he was a one-man scourge on crime, Punisher was a misguided Spider-Man villain.

Again, the rumors suggest Punisher is protecting Sadie Sink’s character, whether she turns out to be a fugitive Jean Grey, a grieving Rachel Cole, or someone else entirely. It’ll be interesting to see how Peter and Frank interact, as we can’t imagine Spidey is very supportive of someone who guns down criminals by the dozens. Their brief interaction in the trailer already suggests they aren’t exactly BFFs.

The Villains of Brand New Day

So who are the villains of Brand New Day? Well, it sure doesn’t seem as though the rumors about Holland’s Spidey teaming up with Tom Hardy’s Venom to battle Andy Serkis’ Knull had any merit. Instead, Brand New Day is shaping up to be a relatively more grounded MCU film focused on street level crime.

That gels with what we know about the villains of the film so far. Brand New Day will finally follow up on a tease from Homecoming by pitting Spidey against Michael Mando’s Mac Gargan. In Homecoming, Mando’s Gargan was simply an incarcerated felon with a scorpion tattoo and an interest in Spider-Man’s secret identity. Here, it looks as though he’ll become the Scorpion and don an armored suit to fight Spidey.

Also joining the fray is Marvin Jones III as Lonnie Lincoln, better known as the crime boss Tombstone. Tombstone is a superhuman with indestructible albino skin and super-strength. The character has been getting a lot of exposure lately thanks to projects like Insomniac’s Spider-Man games and the animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, so it makes sense that he’d be making his MCU debut now.

Taken together, we get the impression that Scorpion and Tombstone are symptoms of a larger problem as a new war breaks out in New York’s criminal underworld. With Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk having gone legit in Daredevil: Born Again, there may be a power vacuum in the city that needs filling. We even see Spidey doing battle with a group of ninjas that could be The Hand, suggesting even this ancient ninja cult has designs on the city’s underworld.

We know of at least two other actors who have joined the cast of Brand New Day: The Bear’s Liza Colón-Zayas and Severance’s Tramell Tillman. Tillman’s character is rumored to be involved with the Department of Damage Control, which was introduced in Homecoming and played a big part in the recent Wonder Man series. This could lend credence to the Jean Grey rumor. We know Damage Control is responsible for dealing with unregistered metahumans, suggesting they could be at the forefront of the MCU’s growing mutant problem.

As for Colón-Zayas, we don’t know what character she’s playing and whether they’ll be friend or foe to our hero. Hopefully the former. Peter could surely use a friend at this point.