{"id":2154942,"date":"2026-09-21T10:38:48","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T07:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2154942"},"modified":"2026-09-21T10:38:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T07:38:48","slug":"spider-man-brand-new-day-story-changed-repeatedly-as-sony-launched-those-terrible-villain-spinoff-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2154942","title":{"rendered":"Spider-Man: Brand New Day Story Changed Repeatedly as Sony Launched Those Terrible Villain Spinoff Films"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-cy=\"article-content\" class=\"jsx-3246540067 article-content page-0\">\n<section data-cy=\"article-subtitle\" class=\"article jsx-3932497636 article-section jsx-2044616299 news\" data-autopogo=\"true\">\n<section class=\"article-page\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Early ideas for <a class=\"link jsx-1337145738 jsx-3925284146 underlined\" data-cy=\"styled-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/movies\/spider-man-brand-new-day\">Spider-Man: Brand New Day<\/a> included alternate villains, a British alter ego, and several changes to avoid characters Sony ended up using in its own Spider-Universe films.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebulwark.com\/p\/breaking-down-spider-man-brand-new-day-with-chris-mckenna\" class=\"link jsx-1337145738 jsx-3925284146 underlined\" data-cy=\"styled-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Bulwark<\/a>, Spider-Man writer Chris McKenna revealed some of the story concepts discussed and then discarded during what sounds like a lengthy search for Brand New Day&#8217;s plot. Most difficult, it seems, was a decision on who the movie&#8217;s villain would be \u2014 with Jean Grey not finalized until September 2024, less than a year before the film began shooting.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">That&#8217;s despite years of work by McKenna and his co-writing partner Erik Summers, who together have penned all of Tom Holland&#8217;s Spider-Man movies (plus Ant-Man and the Wasp, with forthcoming credits on both Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars).<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">Spider-Man: Brand New Day &#8211; Our Biggest Burning Questions<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Let\u2019s lay out some of the biggest burning questions we have after Spider-Man: Brand New Day, as well as some of the smallest, and see how well we can do in also answering them!&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nSpoilers follow!\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3027214138 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/RightChevron.272be43c.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"><\/span><\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-list\" class=\"scrollbar jsx-2072772685 jsx-4243969252 images-list\"><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"&lt;b&gt;Where Is Jean Grey Going?&lt;\/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nAfter the confrontation at the Damage Control facility, Jean Grey is (somehow) not arrested for Thought Crimes perpetrated on the city of New York, but rather is headed out of town on a bus. Where\u2019s she going? Well, the reported answer is Avengers: Secret Wars, which likely takes place on a patchwork planet called Battleworld (more on that later). So in terms of her bus ride, at least immediately, she\u2019s not going anywhere.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nHowever, it\u2019s hard to see a bus heading out of New York City and into woodsy, possibly upstate Fall foliage and not think she\u2019s headed to Westchester, home of Xavier\u2019s School for Gifted Youngsters. To be clear, we don\u2019t know whether there is an Xavier\u2019s school in the MCU, or if it\u2019s in Westchester, or if when director Jake Schreier\u2019s in-development X-Men movie picks up Jean will still be on the bus, or somewhere else entirely. But in the lore of the Marvel Comics, Jean is Professor X\u2019s first student\u2026 So wherever the MCU lands with Marvel\u2019s Merry Mutants, the implication at the end of the movie is clear: Jean is headed towards her destiny with the X-Men. Whenever and wherever that may be.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\n(Photo Credit: Sony\/Alberto E. Rodriguez, 2026)\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"rounded jsx-412047461 overlay progressive-image jsx-2338608387 expand\" data-cy=\"slideshow-image-overlay\">\n<div data-cy=\"element-caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490\">View 13 Images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"&lt;b&gt;Did Spider-Man Accidentally Create Mutant Inhibitors?&lt;\/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nWhile we\u2019re talking X-Men, there\u2019s a very big plot point that could potentially be used in the upcoming X-Men reboot movie from Brand New Day: Mutant Inhibitors. Spider-Man spends most of the movie wrestling with his surging arachnid DNA, and how to suppress it. Thanks to some coaching by Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), aka the Hulk, he hits on the idea of an inhibitor chip, which he successfully uses on himself \u2013 as well as to suppress Jean\u2019s telepathic powers entirely.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nHowever, both Bruce and MJ (Zendaya) warn him that this technology is extremely dangerous, and potentially suppressing something that needs to be expressed. MJ is more concerned about Peter; but Bruce\u2019s warning is about the ramifications of unleashing technology that can suppress any powers in a world already on edge about the idea of super-powered individuals.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nWhile there have been plenty of riffs about this type of technology throughout the decades, it\u2019s impossible to hear this in a movie that brings mutants into the MCU (ignoring the events of Ms. Marvel and The Marvels, as well as Avengers: Doomsday for the moment) without thinking Spider-Man\u2019s tech, which ends up in the hands of Damage Control, could be used on the burgeoning mutant menace.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nNormally in the Marvel Comics it takes the form of Inhibitor Collars, placed around a mutant\u2019s neck. Here, it\u2019s a chip, though Damage Control needs to keep it connected to a power source to keep it going. Point being, there\u2019s probably some refinement there before it pops up in an X-Men movie\u2026 But yes, very likely Peter Parker is responsible for something that will become a bane to mutant-kind.\n\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"&lt;b&gt;What Happened to William Metzger?&lt;\/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nRiffing off the previous point, the actual bad guy of the movie, William Metzger (Tramell Tillman) is in the wind at the end of the movie. While Bill Metzger was a minor antagonist in the comics, it\u2019s pretty clear here that his philosophy of preventing damage through Damage Control by rounding up super-powered beings can be extended very specifically to mutants in an X-Men movie, or movies.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nThere are plenty of characters who fit this bill in X-Men comics, TV shows, and movies; from William Stryker and Henry Gyrich to Graydon Creed and beyond. So Metzger is far from out of place in a (potential) franchise that features mutant haters who either want to use, abuse, or eliminate the X-gene entirely. Whether we\u2019ll see him as the main villain of an X-Men movie or merely another threat in the background is, of course, TBD. But Jean and her future teammates are likely far from done with Metzger yet.\n\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"&lt;b&gt;Where Is Spider-Man in the End-Credits Scene, and Does It Make Any Sense?&lt;\/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nWhile there\u2019s no mid-credits scene, there is a Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene and it\u2019s, uh, a potentially confusing one. In it, we get an animated shot of Ned\u2019s (Jacob Batalon) Spidey-Tracker app, which is searching for Spider-Man\u2019s location. We hear the app say \u201clocation unknown\u201d a few times as it zooms out, then moves away from Earth, and says, \u201clocation found\u201d with a little Spider-Man avatar floating in space. This is followed by the white on black words \u201cSpider-Man Will Return,\u201d though it does not add \u201cin Avengers: Doomsday\u201d or \u201cAt a Russian Bathhouse.\u201d&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nThe basic interpretation here is that Spider-Man is off-planet, in space. The longer interpretation, or the smallest leap is that this is showing Spider-Man during the events of Secret Wars on Battleworld. The part of this that is potentially confusing, if correct, is that the assumption is we\u2019re following the rough plot of writer Jonathan Hickman\u2019s 2015 Secret Wars comic book, which finds the multiverse destroyed and the remains coalesced into one patchwork planet called Battleworld, ruled by Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.).&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nIf this is setting up that Spider-Man (Holland, to be clear, not one of the other Peters) is on Battleworld, then how is the Spidey-Tracker still active on Earth, assuming Earth was destroyed? Or perhaps this is merely Spider-Man being taken off Earth in a Life Raft, a vehicle meant to survive the multiversal collapse which eventually lands on Battleworld, moments before Earth is destroyed. Or maybe this is just a fun animated sequence that indicates Spider-Man will be in space next time we see him, and don\u2019t worry about it too much? Either way, we\u2019ll likely know when Spider-Man returns \u2013 probably in 2027, though TBA.\n\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"&lt;b&gt;Why Wasn&apos;t The Punisher Arrested in the Hospital? (Or When Driving His Punisher-mobile Around?)&lt;\/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nUnlike Spider-Man, who is beloved by all of New York, The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) is a murderous vigilante on the run. So why wasn\u2019t he arrested while hanging out in the hospital with Peter \u2013 who, we should mention, he also shot? This is, in general, an ongoing question with the character, who isn\u2019t saving people so much as murdering criminals. And as far as we\u2019ve seen in Daredevil: Born Again and The Punisher: One Last Kill, there\u2019s nothing that has particularly cleared his name in any way.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nPerhaps one could venture that when Wilson Fisk (Vincent D\u2019Onofrio) murdered all those people in the Born Again Season 2 finale and was exiled from New York, those who were in his semi-legal Red Hook prison were cleared of all crimes. But The Punisher has definitely killed more people after that happened. And while one could accept his secret ship-base is a good hideout, or when he\u2019s in the middle of a pitched tank battle driving his Punisher-mobile \u2013 which really should be a car in the shape of a skull, let\u2019s be honest \u2013 he can evade the cops\u2026 Uh, but what about when he\u2019s sitting in a hospital for a few days? It\u2019s not like he wears a mask (other than when he wears Spider-Man\u2019s mask), so anyone would recognize Frank Castle pretty much the second he stumbled through the doors.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nThe short answer here is also \u201cdon\u2019t worry about it\u201d with a side of maybe they gave him a pass because he was helping Spider-Man (did we mention he was the one who shot him?). But yeah, it strains logic a little bit that one of the biggest mass murderers in New York City history gets to hang out wherever he wants with no repercussions.\n\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">As has been discussed previously, Brand New Day was always conceived as a smaller-scale movie following the multiversal multi-Spider-Men antics of No Way Home. But the idea of Peter Parker going through a kind of metamorphosis took time to be accepted, with the pitch initially being discarded.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;We went down some different roads,&#8221; McKenna revealed. &#8220;We came back to &#8211; this was one of our original ideas, [the idea of] metamorphosis &#8211; that we went away from and then came back to it. And people were like &#8216;woah this is great, where&#8217;d this come from?&#8217; Well, we pitched it to you a year and a half ago before we went down that other road! <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;And I&#8217;m glad, maybe we had to do that to get back to the metamorphosis story, which I thought was the most simple, potent, cool idea. Someone who&#8217;s resisting change going through one he couldn&#8217;t control. Particularly with the MCU [version of the] character, as we never saw him get his powers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">What was that other story avenue McKenna and Summers explored? Here, McKenna says he &#8220;can&#8217;t talk about&#8221; this in detail in case Marvel still wants to use some of its plot elements in future, but &#8220;there were similarities&#8221; to what Brand New Day eventually became. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;[Such as] him falling in with MJ, but she didn&#8217;t know him,&#8221; McKenna said. &#8220;So he had to have a persona he put on. At one point we had him putting on his British accent, so it would have been Tom&#8217;s British accent, but Tom from Queens pretending he&#8217;s British, as he&#8217;d run into MJ while Spider-Man and thought he now needed to disguise his voice.&#8221; In this version of the story, Peter would have introduced himself to MJ as Ben Reilly \u2014 the name of a cloned version of Spider-Man from the comics. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">McKenna says it took time before it was clear Zendaya would return for the movie, or the extent to which she would appear. Regardless, the writers were keen not to quickly undo the ending of No Way Home. &#8220;There was an early version of the story where she&#8217;s like &#8216;I figured it out,'&#8221; McKenna said, though this too was scrapped.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">One dramatically different idea would have opened with Peter as &#8220;a badass hero in South East Asia, taking on South East Asian gangs. He&#8217;s living on a boat, fixing the engine, making his own web fluid. And then he gets a video message that Spider-Man is back in New York charming fans \u2014 [an] imposter. And he gets there and finds this guy is using his web fluid and suit, and he&#8217;s done the thing Peter Parker has never done and copyrighted his brand. And then he has to hire Matt Murdock to fight it. And then he gets a cease and desist from this other guy. &#8216;You can&#8217;t pretend you&#8217;re Spider-Man!'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;It was pretty fun, but it was a very different story,&#8221; McKenna reflected.<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">Spider-Man: Brand New Day Images<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3027214138 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/RightChevron.272be43c.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"><\/span><\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-list\" class=\"scrollbar jsx-2072772685 jsx-4243969252 images-list\"><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"rounded jsx-412047461 overlay progressive-image jsx-2338608387 expand\" data-cy=\"slideshow-image-overlay\">\n<div data-cy=\"element-caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490\">View 19 Images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"&lt;b&gt;Why Wasn&apos;t The Punisher Arrested in the Hospital? (Or When Driving His Punisher-mobile Around?)&lt;\/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nUnlike Spider-Man, who is beloved by all of New York, The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) is a murderous vigilante on the run. So why wasn\u2019t he arrested while hanging out in the hospital with Peter \u2013 who, we should mention, he also shot? This is, in general, an ongoing question with the character, who isn\u2019t saving people so much as murdering criminals. And as far as we\u2019ve seen in Daredevil: Born Again and The Punisher: One Last Kill, there\u2019s nothing that has particularly cleared his name in any way.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nPerhaps one could venture that when Wilson Fisk (Vincent D\u2019Onofrio) murdered all those people in the Born Again Season 2 finale and was exiled from New York, those who were in his semi-legal Red Hook prison were cleared of all crimes. But The Punisher has definitely killed more people after that happened. And while one could accept his secret ship-base is a good hideout, or when he\u2019s in the middle of a pitched tank battle driving his Punisher-mobile \u2013 which really should be a car in the shape of a skull, let\u2019s be honest \u2013 he can evade the cops\u2026 Uh, but what about when he\u2019s sitting in a hospital for a few days? It\u2019s not like he wears a mask (other than when he wears Spider-Man\u2019s mask), so anyone would recognize Frank Castle pretty much the second he stumbled through the doors.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nThe short answer here is also \u201cdon\u2019t worry about it\u201d with a side of maybe they gave him a pass because he was helping Spider-Man (did we mention he was the one who shot him?). But yeah, it strains logic a little bit that one of the biggest mass murderers in New York City history gets to hang out wherever he wants with no repercussions.\n\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Yet another story idea would have begun with Peter falling ill and hallucinating a message passed to him by his local bodega&#8217;s cat, who would have talked and told him to hunt down the Spider-Totems. Peter would then have woken up in a hospital where this would have been revealed as a dream brought on by appendicitis. While in hospital, however, Peter would have missed paying his rent \u2014 something that would lead to him getting kicked out of his apartment and moving in with two guys down the hall. These friendly neighbours would then be revealed as villains Overkill and Boomerang, which would lead to him uncovering a deeper mystery.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Several ideas were pitched with the sense of a &#8220;Die Hard with a Vengeance concept,&#8221; where Peter faces off against a street level villain over the course of a day. There were also other ideas for who the shape-shifting Jean Grey character could be, including Chameleon \u2014 though this process was hampered by Sony&#8217;s ongoing push to release its critically-panned Spider Universe spinoffs, such as Madame Web, Morbius, and Kraven.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;We did not begin with Jean Grey, the way we got to her was&#8230; we got the idea for the metamorphosis [story], we needed a villain,&#8221; McKenna began. &#8220;And we were thinking, are there any Spider-Man classic villains we could use that we have not used before? Obviously, No Way Home, we were competing with the Spider-Verse movies, and then the Sony standalones. [It was] just frustrating, we were eating each other&#8217;s lunches. <\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">How to Watch Sony&#8217;s Spider-Man Universe in Chronological Order<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Click through for a full breakdown of how to watch Sony&apos;s Spider-Man Universe movies in chronological order.\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3027214138 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/RightChevron.272be43c.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"><\/span><\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-list\" class=\"scrollbar jsx-2072772685 jsx-4243969252 images-list\"><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"1. Madame Web (2024)\n&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\nIt may be one of Sony\u2019s more recent Marvel movies, but Madame Web is actually the first in the series chronologically. The movie is mostly set in the early \u201800s, when Peter Parker\u2019s Uncle Ben (Adam Scott) and mother Mary (Emma Roberts) are still alive. We even get to see baby Peter Parker be born, technically making Madame Web the one Sony\u2019s Spider-Man Universe movie to actually feature Spider-Man. Mostly, though, Madame Web is focused on Dakota Johnson\u2019s Cassandra Webb as she grapples with her precognitive visions and battles evil billionaire Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim).\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"rounded jsx-412047461 overlay progressive-image jsx-2338608387 expand\" data-cy=\"slideshow-image-overlay\">\n<div data-cy=\"element-caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490\">View 10 Images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"2. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)\n&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\nSpider-Man: Homecoming is the first solo MCU movie to star Tom Holland\u2019s Peter Parker, though technically the character debuted in 2016\u2019s Captain America: Civil War (which isn\u2019t a Sony movie). Set in the aftermath of Civil War, Homecoming follows Peter as he struggles to balance his responsibilities at school with his burgeoning career as a costumed superhero. That puts him in conflict with Michael Keaton\u2019s Adrian Toomes, the head of a salvage operation who becomes the winged villain known as The Vulture. Toomes later goes on to play a role in Sony\u2019s Spider-Man Universe.\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"3. Venom (2018)\n&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\nIt may not be the first movie chronologically, but Venom is the first non-Marvel Studios coproduction Sony released. Tom Hardy stars as crusading reporter Eddie Brock, whose investigation of the sinister Life Foundation leads to him bonding with an alien symbiote and becoming Venom. The first movie pits Venom against the Life Foundation\u2019s head, Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), who eventually bonds with a symbiote himself and becomes Riot. Despite the close association between Venom and Spider-Man in the comics, the movie makes no overt references to Spidey or Peter Parker.\u00a0\u00a0\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"4. Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)\n&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\nThe second MCU movie to star Tom Holland\u2019s Spider-Man is after 2019\u2019s Avengers: Endgame. This time around, Peter is forced to come to terms with being snapped out of existence for five years by Thanos and mourning the late Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). A much-needed class trip abroad is interrupted by the sudden appearance of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and a new feud with master illusionist Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal). Far From Home\u2019s ending has far-reaching ramifications for both the MCU and Sony\u2019s Spider-Man Universe, as Peter finds his secret identity leaked across the world.\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"5. Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)\n&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\nHardy\u2019s Eddie Brock and his symbiote companion return in this Venom sequel. Let There Be Carnage follows up on the post-credits scene from the first movie as it pits Venom against the sadistic Carnage (Woody Harrelson) and his lover Shriek (Naomie Harris). Let There Be Carnage is also notable for forging a direct link to the MCU with its post-credits scene, where Brock is suddenly dragged into an MCU still reeling from the outing of Spider-Man\u2019s secret identity. The reason for Eddie\u2019s detour to another universe wouldn\u2019t become clear until the release of the next Spider-Man movie a couple of months later.\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;We would break a story for two weeks, and we had Spot as our villain in No Way Home, and then we&#8217;d find out &#8216;oh, we&#8217;ve just read the new outline for Across the Spider-Verse, and Spot&#8217;s in it, so, can&#8217;t have that.&#8217; And then we&#8217;d go &#8216;at least we have Kraven.&#8217; We were told Sony would never make a Kraven standalone movie. We had fun ways to get into the Kraven character, turning New York into a Home Alone trap for Spider-Man, booby traps everywhere, a big star as an iconic Kraven who&#8217;s just hunting down Peter Parker, even as a tertiary villain but someone who&#8217;s stalking him the whole movie. And then it was like a joke: &#8216;Sony is making a standalone Kraven movie.&#8217; It was like, &#8216;you gotta be kidding me.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;When we had the metamorphosis Peter Parker story, I was on the phone to Summers saying &#8216;is there any way to do Chameleon?'&#8221; McKenna continued. &#8220;How do we do Chameleon, how do we make it fresh? Because the MCU has already done shapeshifting with the Skrulls. And then we were thinking telepathy \u2014 where someone is taking people, possessing people. So we got excited by that&#8230; and then we found out, oh no, actually, in Kraven, his half-brother Sergei who&#8217;s Chameleon in the comic books is in it. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;But once you go down the telepathy route you&#8217;re in mutant territory, which is immediately tricky. So we backed into what could be a tricky situation, which is &#8211; oh, you&#8217;re not creating a Sony-owned, Sony-controlled villain anymore, if you&#8217;re doing a telepath who might be a mutant, you&#8217;re now in Marvel&#8217;s sandbox. And that became definitely trickier as, at the time, Disney had taken over Fox and were getting control over the X-Men and the mutants, and they were already planning how to unveil and use the mutants in their movies. So I suddenly found myself in something of a trench war, where we didn&#8217;t want to step on anyone&#8217;s toes on what they&#8217;re doing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"jsx-2896921488 video jsx-2008855984 aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9\">\n<div class=\"badge jsx-1349606671 jsx-3647116352\"><span class=\"ign-icon icon-play jsx-2750866048 jsx-1044454891\" role=\"img\" aria-hidden=\"false\" data-cy=\"icon-play\" aria-label=\"Play\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/Play.59e5540b.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Another potential alternative here was Shadow King, an invisible telepath discovered by Charles Xavier, whose storyline would have seen him hunting for his lost body that was hidden somewhere in New York. But even this ran into problems as the Legion TV show had used a version of the character too. As McKenna wrestled with a version of the character that they were told couldn&#8217;t even be named Shadow King, he finally got a call that the use of Jean Grey was on the table. This was September 2024, three years after No Way Home launched in theaters, and 11 months from Brand New Day beginning its shoot.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Despite all the changes in earlier versions of the script, one scene apparently remained even from the film&#8217;s earliest incarnations: Peter meeting Yelena in the bathhouse, as McKenna knew it would be fun.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">After a long road to release, however, Brand New Day has certainly done the business for Sony and Marvel. As of this month, the film has <a class=\"link jsx-1337145738 jsx-3925284146 underlined\" data-cy=\"styled-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/spider-man-brand-new-day-surpasses-star-wars-the-force-awakens-to-become-north-americas-highest-grossing-movie-of-all-time\">overtaken Star Wars: The Force Awakens to become the highest-grossing movie of all time in North America<\/a>, with an overall global box office total that now stands at $2.47 billion. Will it be the highest grossing film of 2026 overall? We&#8217;ll have to wait for Avengers: Doomsday this December in order to find out.<\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"accent-divider\" class=\"jsx-3449795453 divider jsx-2786329600\"><\/div>\n<section class=\"author-sign-off\" data-cy=\"author-sign-off\"><span class=\"stack jsx-59817748 jsx-1927875859\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"rounded jsx-444076027 jsx-4218469134 profile-thumb jsx-2141281959 aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-1-1\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Tom Phillips Avatar\" class=\"progressive-image profile-thumb-img jsx-249361588 jsx-2338608387 expand\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/assets-prd.ignimgs.com\/avatars\/682ae571844d33001df37887\/bafkreidcdvzaebn4npc6hj3ffj6fzlg3kqnfpgazyarf24lfrnboi6lzbe-1747728739638.jpg?crop=1%3A1&amp;width=56&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=80\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"stack jsx-2509706801 jsx-3630940851\"><span class=\"stack jsx-2959124702 jsx-702910195 author-sign-off-header\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/person\/tomphillipsIGN\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"interface jsx-1132626198 jsx-2809511915 bold underlined\">Tom Phillips<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490 muted\">News Editor<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"stack jsx-2509706801 jsx-1220387432\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"author-sign-off-socials\" class=\"jsx-2877214176 author-sign-off-socials\"><button type=\"button\" aria-haspopup=\"listbox\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-label=\"View social links\" class=\"jsx-2877214176 socials-trigger\"><span title=\"X\" class=\"jsx-2877214176 social-icon-avatar\"><span class=\"ign-icon jsx-2877214176 jsx-2750866048 jsx-2788214270\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"jsx-2877214176\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/Twitter.d0b97af5.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"><\/span><\/span><span title=\"Bluesky\" class=\"jsx-2877214176 social-icon-avatar\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"ign-icon jsx-2877214176 jsx-2750866048 jsx-2788214270\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"jsx-2877214176\" alt loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/Bluesky.d8b4aa9b.svg?cors=0\"><\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<div role=\"listbox\" class=\"scrollbar jsx-2772765485 jsx-4243969252 jsx-3705869475 dropdown-menu jsx-3625955085\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/@tomphillipsEG\" id=\"author-sign-off-social-twitterHandle\" class=\"menu-item jsx-3565735818 jsx-3927327418\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490 menu-item-text\" data-text=\"X\">X<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"ign-icon icon-twitter jsx-2750866048 jsx-3701596282\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"icon-twitter\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/Twitter.d0b97af5.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"><\/span><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/tomphillipseg.bsky.social\" id=\"author-sign-off-social-blueskyUrl\" class=\"menu-item jsx-3565735818 jsx-3927327418\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490 menu-item-text\" data-text=\"Bluesky\">Bluesky<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"ign-icon icon-bluesky jsx-2750866048 jsx-3701596282\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"icon-bluesky\" alt loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/Bluesky.d8b4aa9b.svg?cors=0\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"interface jsx-1132626198 sign-off-text\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Tom Phillips is IGN&#8217;s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/tomphillipseg.bsky.social\" class=\"link jsx-1337145738 jsx-3925284146 underlined\" data-cy=\"styled-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer noopener noreferrer\">@tomphillipseg.bsky.social<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"jsx-2511205168 preferred-source\"><strong class=\"jsx-2511205168\">Get IGN&#8217;s Biggest Stories FIRST. Set Us as Your Source.<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.ign.com\" class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--secondary jsx-3027214138 icon-button contained centered large\" title=\"Add Source\" aria-label=\"Add Source\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"ign-icon icon-google jsx-2750866048 jsx-3701596282\" role=\"img\" aria-hidden=\"false\" data-cy=\"icon-google\" alt=\"Google\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/Google.9e99a9d7.svg?cors=0\"><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 large\">Add Source<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"stack jsx-1475529924\"><\/span><\/div>\n<section class=\"article-page\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Early ideas for <a class=\"link jsx-1337145738 jsx-3925284146 underlined\" data-cy=\"styled-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/movies\/spider-man-brand-new-day\">Spider-Man: Brand New Day<\/a> included alternate villains, a British alter ego, and several changes to avoid characters Sony ended up using in its own Spider-Universe films.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebulwark.com\/p\/breaking-down-spider-man-brand-new-day-with-chris-mckenna\" class=\"link jsx-1337145738 jsx-3925284146 underlined\" data-cy=\"styled-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Bulwark<\/a>, Spider-Man writer Chris McKenna revealed some of the story concepts discussed and then discarded during what sounds like a lengthy search for Brand New Day&#8217;s plot. Most difficult, it seems, was a decision on who the movie&#8217;s villain would be \u2014 with Jean Grey not finalized until September 2024, less than a year before the film began shooting.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">That&#8217;s despite years of work by McKenna and his co-writing partner Erik Summers, who together have penned all of Tom Holland&#8217;s Spider-Man movies (plus Ant-Man and the Wasp, with forthcoming credits on both Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars).<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">Spider-Man: Brand New Day &#8211; Our Biggest Burning Questions<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Let\u2019s lay out some of the biggest burning questions we have after Spider-Man: Brand New Day, as well as some of the smallest, and see how well we can do in also answering them!&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nSpoilers follow!\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3027214138 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/RightChevron.272be43c.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"><\/span><\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-list\" class=\"scrollbar jsx-2072772685 jsx-4243969252 images-list\"><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"&lt;b&gt;Where Is Jean Grey Going?&lt;\/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nAfter the confrontation at the Damage Control facility, Jean Grey is (somehow) not arrested for Thought Crimes perpetrated on the city of New York, but rather is headed out of town on a bus. Where\u2019s she going? Well, the reported answer is Avengers: Secret Wars, which likely takes place on a patchwork planet called Battleworld (more on that later). So in terms of her bus ride, at least immediately, she\u2019s not going anywhere.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nHowever, it\u2019s hard to see a bus heading out of New York City and into woodsy, possibly upstate Fall foliage and not think she\u2019s headed to Westchester, home of Xavier\u2019s School for Gifted Youngsters. To be clear, we don\u2019t know whether there is an Xavier\u2019s school in the MCU, or if it\u2019s in Westchester, or if when director Jake Schreier\u2019s in-development X-Men movie picks up Jean will still be on the bus, or somewhere else entirely. But in the lore of the Marvel Comics, Jean is Professor X\u2019s first student\u2026 So wherever the MCU lands with Marvel\u2019s Merry Mutants, the implication at the end of the movie is clear: Jean is headed towards her destiny with the X-Men. Whenever and wherever that may be.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\n(Photo Credit: Sony\/Alberto E. Rodriguez, 2026)\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"rounded jsx-412047461 overlay progressive-image jsx-2338608387 expand\" data-cy=\"slideshow-image-overlay\">\n<div data-cy=\"element-caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490\">View 13 Images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"&lt;b&gt;Did Spider-Man Accidentally Create Mutant Inhibitors?&lt;\/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nWhile we\u2019re talking X-Men, there\u2019s a very big plot point that could potentially be used in the upcoming X-Men reboot movie from Brand New Day: Mutant Inhibitors. Spider-Man spends most of the movie wrestling with his surging arachnid DNA, and how to suppress it. Thanks to some coaching by Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), aka the Hulk, he hits on the idea of an inhibitor chip, which he successfully uses on himself \u2013 as well as to suppress Jean\u2019s telepathic powers entirely.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nHowever, both Bruce and MJ (Zendaya) warn him that this technology is extremely dangerous, and potentially suppressing something that needs to be expressed. MJ is more concerned about Peter; but Bruce\u2019s warning is about the ramifications of unleashing technology that can suppress any powers in a world already on edge about the idea of super-powered individuals.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nWhile there have been plenty of riffs about this type of technology throughout the decades, it\u2019s impossible to hear this in a movie that brings mutants into the MCU (ignoring the events of Ms. Marvel and The Marvels, as well as Avengers: Doomsday for the moment) without thinking Spider-Man\u2019s tech, which ends up in the hands of Damage Control, could be used on the burgeoning mutant menace.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nNormally in the Marvel Comics it takes the form of Inhibitor Collars, placed around a mutant\u2019s neck. Here, it\u2019s a chip, though Damage Control needs to keep it connected to a power source to keep it going. Point being, there\u2019s probably some refinement there before it pops up in an X-Men movie\u2026 But yes, very likely Peter Parker is responsible for something that will become a bane to mutant-kind.\n\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"&lt;b&gt;What Happened to William Metzger?&lt;\/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nRiffing off the previous point, the actual bad guy of the movie, William Metzger (Tramell Tillman) is in the wind at the end of the movie. While Bill Metzger was a minor antagonist in the comics, it\u2019s pretty clear here that his philosophy of preventing damage through Damage Control by rounding up super-powered beings can be extended very specifically to mutants in an X-Men movie, or movies.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nThere are plenty of characters who fit this bill in X-Men comics, TV shows, and movies; from William Stryker and Henry Gyrich to Graydon Creed and beyond. So Metzger is far from out of place in a (potential) franchise that features mutant haters who either want to use, abuse, or eliminate the X-gene entirely. Whether we\u2019ll see him as the main villain of an X-Men movie or merely another threat in the background is, of course, TBD. But Jean and her future teammates are likely far from done with Metzger yet.\n\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"&lt;b&gt;Where Is Spider-Man in the End-Credits Scene, and Does It Make Any Sense?&lt;\/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nWhile there\u2019s no mid-credits scene, there is a Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene and it\u2019s, uh, a potentially confusing one. In it, we get an animated shot of Ned\u2019s (Jacob Batalon) Spidey-Tracker app, which is searching for Spider-Man\u2019s location. We hear the app say \u201clocation unknown\u201d a few times as it zooms out, then moves away from Earth, and says, \u201clocation found\u201d with a little Spider-Man avatar floating in space. This is followed by the white on black words \u201cSpider-Man Will Return,\u201d though it does not add \u201cin Avengers: Doomsday\u201d or \u201cAt a Russian Bathhouse.\u201d&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nThe basic interpretation here is that Spider-Man is off-planet, in space. The longer interpretation, or the smallest leap is that this is showing Spider-Man during the events of Secret Wars on Battleworld. The part of this that is potentially confusing, if correct, is that the assumption is we\u2019re following the rough plot of writer Jonathan Hickman\u2019s 2015 Secret Wars comic book, which finds the multiverse destroyed and the remains coalesced into one patchwork planet called Battleworld, ruled by Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.).&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nIf this is setting up that Spider-Man (Holland, to be clear, not one of the other Peters) is on Battleworld, then how is the Spidey-Tracker still active on Earth, assuming Earth was destroyed? Or perhaps this is merely Spider-Man being taken off Earth in a Life Raft, a vehicle meant to survive the multiversal collapse which eventually lands on Battleworld, moments before Earth is destroyed. Or maybe this is just a fun animated sequence that indicates Spider-Man will be in space next time we see him, and don\u2019t worry about it too much? Either way, we\u2019ll likely know when Spider-Man returns \u2013 probably in 2027, though TBA.\n\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"&lt;b&gt;Why Wasn&apos;t The Punisher Arrested in the Hospital? (Or When Driving His Punisher-mobile Around?)&lt;\/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nUnlike Spider-Man, who is beloved by all of New York, The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) is a murderous vigilante on the run. So why wasn\u2019t he arrested while hanging out in the hospital with Peter \u2013 who, we should mention, he also shot? This is, in general, an ongoing question with the character, who isn\u2019t saving people so much as murdering criminals. And as far as we\u2019ve seen in Daredevil: Born Again and The Punisher: One Last Kill, there\u2019s nothing that has particularly cleared his name in any way.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nPerhaps one could venture that when Wilson Fisk (Vincent D\u2019Onofrio) murdered all those people in the Born Again Season 2 finale and was exiled from New York, those who were in his semi-legal Red Hook prison were cleared of all crimes. But The Punisher has definitely killed more people after that happened. And while one could accept his secret ship-base is a good hideout, or when he\u2019s in the middle of a pitched tank battle driving his Punisher-mobile \u2013 which really should be a car in the shape of a skull, let\u2019s be honest \u2013 he can evade the cops\u2026 Uh, but what about when he\u2019s sitting in a hospital for a few days? It\u2019s not like he wears a mask (other than when he wears Spider-Man\u2019s mask), so anyone would recognize Frank Castle pretty much the second he stumbled through the doors.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nThe short answer here is also \u201cdon\u2019t worry about it\u201d with a side of maybe they gave him a pass because he was helping Spider-Man (did we mention he was the one who shot him?). But yeah, it strains logic a little bit that one of the biggest mass murderers in New York City history gets to hang out wherever he wants with no repercussions.\n\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">As has been discussed previously, Brand New Day was always conceived as a smaller-scale movie following the multiversal multi-Spider-Men antics of No Way Home. But the idea of Peter Parker going through a kind of metamorphosis took time to be accepted, with the pitch initially being discarded.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;We went down some different roads,&#8221; McKenna revealed. &#8220;We came back to &#8211; this was one of our original ideas, [the idea of] metamorphosis &#8211; that we went away from and then came back to it. And people were like &#8216;woah this is great, where&#8217;d this come from?&#8217; Well, we pitched it to you a year and a half ago before we went down that other road! <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;And I&#8217;m glad, maybe we had to do that to get back to the metamorphosis story, which I thought was the most simple, potent, cool idea. Someone who&#8217;s resisting change going through one he couldn&#8217;t control. Particularly with the MCU [version of the] character, as we never saw him get his powers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">What was that other story avenue McKenna and Summers explored? Here, McKenna says he &#8220;can&#8217;t talk about&#8221; this in detail in case Marvel still wants to use some of its plot elements in future, but &#8220;there were similarities&#8221; to what Brand New Day eventually became. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;[Such as] him falling in with MJ, but she didn&#8217;t know him,&#8221; McKenna said. &#8220;So he had to have a persona he put on. At one point we had him putting on his British accent, so it would have been Tom&#8217;s British accent, but Tom from Queens pretending he&#8217;s British, as he&#8217;d run into MJ while Spider-Man and thought he now needed to disguise his voice.&#8221; In this version of the story, Peter would have introduced himself to MJ as Ben Reilly \u2014 the name of a cloned version of Spider-Man from the comics. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">McKenna says it took time before it was clear Zendaya would return for the movie, or the extent to which she would appear. Regardless, the writers were keen not to quickly undo the ending of No Way Home. &#8220;There was an early version of the story where she&#8217;s like &#8216;I figured it out,'&#8221; McKenna said, though this too was scrapped.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">One dramatically different idea would have opened with Peter as &#8220;a badass hero in South East Asia, taking on South East Asian gangs. He&#8217;s living on a boat, fixing the engine, making his own web fluid. And then he gets a video message that Spider-Man is back in New York charming fans \u2014 [an] imposter. And he gets there and finds this guy is using his web fluid and suit, and he&#8217;s done the thing Peter Parker has never done and copyrighted his brand. And then he has to hire Matt Murdock to fight it. And then he gets a cease and desist from this other guy. &#8216;You can&#8217;t pretend you&#8217;re Spider-Man!'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;It was pretty fun, but it was a very different story,&#8221; McKenna reflected.<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">Spider-Man: Brand New Day Images<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3027214138 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/RightChevron.272be43c.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"><\/span><\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-list\" class=\"scrollbar jsx-2072772685 jsx-4243969252 images-list\"><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"rounded jsx-412047461 overlay progressive-image jsx-2338608387 expand\" data-cy=\"slideshow-image-overlay\">\n<div data-cy=\"element-caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490\">View 19 Images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"&lt;b&gt;Why Wasn&apos;t The Punisher Arrested in the Hospital? (Or When Driving His Punisher-mobile Around?)&lt;\/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nUnlike Spider-Man, who is beloved by all of New York, The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) is a murderous vigilante on the run. So why wasn\u2019t he arrested while hanging out in the hospital with Peter \u2013 who, we should mention, he also shot? This is, in general, an ongoing question with the character, who isn\u2019t saving people so much as murdering criminals. And as far as we\u2019ve seen in Daredevil: Born Again and The Punisher: One Last Kill, there\u2019s nothing that has particularly cleared his name in any way.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nPerhaps one could venture that when Wilson Fisk (Vincent D\u2019Onofrio) murdered all those people in the Born Again Season 2 finale and was exiled from New York, those who were in his semi-legal Red Hook prison were cleared of all crimes. But The Punisher has definitely killed more people after that happened. And while one could accept his secret ship-base is a good hideout, or when he\u2019s in the middle of a pitched tank battle driving his Punisher-mobile \u2013 which really should be a car in the shape of a skull, let\u2019s be honest \u2013 he can evade the cops\u2026 Uh, but what about when he\u2019s sitting in a hospital for a few days? It\u2019s not like he wears a mask (other than when he wears Spider-Man\u2019s mask), so anyone would recognize Frank Castle pretty much the second he stumbled through the doors.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\n\nThe short answer here is also \u201cdon\u2019t worry about it\u201d with a side of maybe they gave him a pass because he was helping Spider-Man (did we mention he was the one who shot him?). But yeah, it strains logic a little bit that one of the biggest mass murderers in New York City history gets to hang out wherever he wants with no repercussions.\n\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Yet another story idea would have begun with Peter falling ill and hallucinating a message passed to him by his local bodega&#8217;s cat, who would have talked and told him to hunt down the Spider-Totems. Peter would then have woken up in a hospital where this would have been revealed as a dream brought on by appendicitis. While in hospital, however, Peter would have missed paying his rent \u2014 something that would lead to him getting kicked out of his apartment and moving in with two guys down the hall. These friendly neighbours would then be revealed as villains Overkill and Boomerang, which would lead to him uncovering a deeper mystery.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Several ideas were pitched with the sense of a &#8220;Die Hard with a Vengeance concept,&#8221; where Peter faces off against a street level villain over the course of a day. There were also other ideas for who the shape-shifting Jean Grey character could be, including Chameleon \u2014 though this process was hampered by Sony&#8217;s ongoing push to release its critically-panned Spider Universe spinoffs, such as Madame Web, Morbius, and Kraven.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;We did not begin with Jean Grey, the way we got to her was&#8230; we got the idea for the metamorphosis [story], we needed a villain,&#8221; McKenna began. &#8220;And we were thinking, are there any Spider-Man classic villains we could use that we have not used before? Obviously, No Way Home, we were competing with the Spider-Verse movies, and then the Sony standalones. [It was] just frustrating, we were eating each other&#8217;s lunches. <\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">How to Watch Sony&#8217;s Spider-Man Universe in Chronological Order<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Click through for a full breakdown of how to watch Sony&apos;s Spider-Man Universe movies in chronological order.\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3027214138 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/RightChevron.272be43c.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"><\/span><\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-list\" class=\"scrollbar jsx-2072772685 jsx-4243969252 images-list\"><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"1. Madame Web (2024)\n&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\nIt may be one of Sony\u2019s more recent Marvel movies, but Madame Web is actually the first in the series chronologically. The movie is mostly set in the early \u201800s, when Peter Parker\u2019s Uncle Ben (Adam Scott) and mother Mary (Emma Roberts) are still alive. We even get to see baby Peter Parker be born, technically making Madame Web the one Sony\u2019s Spider-Man Universe movie to actually feature Spider-Man. Mostly, though, Madame Web is focused on Dakota Johnson\u2019s Cassandra Webb as she grapples with her precognitive visions and battles evil billionaire Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim).\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"rounded jsx-412047461 overlay progressive-image jsx-2338608387 expand\" data-cy=\"slideshow-image-overlay\">\n<div data-cy=\"element-caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490\">View 10 Images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"2. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)\n&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\nSpider-Man: Homecoming is the first solo MCU movie to star Tom Holland\u2019s Peter Parker, though technically the character debuted in 2016\u2019s Captain America: Civil War (which isn\u2019t a Sony movie). Set in the aftermath of Civil War, Homecoming follows Peter as he struggles to balance his responsibilities at school with his burgeoning career as a costumed superhero. That puts him in conflict with Michael Keaton\u2019s Adrian Toomes, the head of a salvage operation who becomes the winged villain known as The Vulture. Toomes later goes on to play a role in Sony\u2019s Spider-Man Universe.\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"3. Venom (2018)\n&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\nIt may not be the first movie chronologically, but Venom is the first non-Marvel Studios coproduction Sony released. Tom Hardy stars as crusading reporter Eddie Brock, whose investigation of the sinister Life Foundation leads to him bonding with an alien symbiote and becoming Venom. The first movie pits Venom against the Life Foundation\u2019s head, Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), who eventually bonds with a symbiote himself and becomes Riot. Despite the close association between Venom and Spider-Man in the comics, the movie makes no overt references to Spidey or Peter Parker.\u00a0\u00a0\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"4. Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)\n&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\nThe second MCU movie to star Tom Holland\u2019s Spider-Man is after 2019\u2019s Avengers: Endgame. This time around, Peter is forced to come to terms with being snapped out of existence for five years by Thanos and mourning the late Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). A much-needed class trip abroad is interrupted by the sudden appearance of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and a new feud with master illusionist Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal). Far From Home\u2019s ending has far-reaching ramifications for both the MCU and Sony\u2019s Spider-Man Universe, as Peter finds his secret identity leaked across the world.\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><button data-cy=\"gallery-image\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 gallery-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"5. Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)\n&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;\nHardy\u2019s Eddie Brock and his symbiote companion return in this Venom sequel. Let There Be Carnage follows up on the post-credits scene from the first movie as it pits Venom against the sadistic Carnage (Woody Harrelson) and his lover Shriek (Naomie Harris). Let There Be Carnage is also notable for forging a direct link to the MCU with its post-credits scene, where Brock is suddenly dragged into an MCU still reeling from the outing of Spider-Man\u2019s secret identity. The reason for Eddie\u2019s detour to another universe wouldn\u2019t become clear until the release of the next Spider-Man movie a couple of months later.\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;We would break a story for two weeks, and we had Spot as our villain in No Way Home, and then we&#8217;d find out &#8216;oh, we&#8217;ve just read the new outline for Across the Spider-Verse, and Spot&#8217;s in it, so, can&#8217;t have that.&#8217; And then we&#8217;d go &#8216;at least we have Kraven.&#8217; We were told Sony would never make a Kraven standalone movie. We had fun ways to get into the Kraven character, turning New York into a Home Alone trap for Spider-Man, booby traps everywhere, a big star as an iconic Kraven who&#8217;s just hunting down Peter Parker, even as a tertiary villain but someone who&#8217;s stalking him the whole movie. And then it was like a joke: &#8216;Sony is making a standalone Kraven movie.&#8217; It was like, &#8216;you gotta be kidding me.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;When we had the metamorphosis Peter Parker story, I was on the phone to Summers saying &#8216;is there any way to do Chameleon?'&#8221; McKenna continued. &#8220;How do we do Chameleon, how do we make it fresh? Because the MCU has already done shapeshifting with the Skrulls. And then we were thinking telepathy \u2014 where someone is taking people, possessing people. So we got excited by that&#8230; and then we found out, oh no, actually, in Kraven, his half-brother Sergei who&#8217;s Chameleon in the comic books is in it. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;But once you go down the telepathy route you&#8217;re in mutant territory, which is immediately tricky. So we backed into what could be a tricky situation, which is &#8211; oh, you&#8217;re not creating a Sony-owned, Sony-controlled villain anymore, if you&#8217;re doing a telepath who might be a mutant, you&#8217;re now in Marvel&#8217;s sandbox. And that became definitely trickier as, at the time, Disney had taken over Fox and were getting control over the X-Men and the mutants, and they were already planning how to unveil and use the mutants in their movies. So I suddenly found myself in something of a trench war, where we didn&#8217;t want to step on anyone&#8217;s toes on what they&#8217;re doing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"jsx-2896921488 video jsx-2008855984 aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9\">\n<div class=\"badge jsx-1349606671 jsx-3647116352\"><span class=\"ign-icon icon-play jsx-2750866048 jsx-1044454891\" role=\"img\" aria-hidden=\"false\" data-cy=\"icon-play\" aria-label=\"Play\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/Play.59e5540b.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Another potential alternative here was Shadow King, an invisible telepath discovered by Charles Xavier, whose storyline would have seen him hunting for his lost body that was hidden somewhere in New York. But even this ran into problems as the Legion TV show had used a version of the character too. As McKenna wrestled with a version of the character that they were told couldn&#8217;t even be named Shadow King, he finally got a call that the use of Jean Grey was on the table. This was September 2024, three years after No Way Home launched in theaters, and 11 months from Brand New Day beginning its shoot.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Despite all the changes in earlier versions of the script, one scene apparently remained even from the film&#8217;s earliest incarnations: Peter meeting Yelena in the bathhouse, as McKenna knew it would be fun.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">After a long road to release, however, Brand New Day has certainly done the business for Sony and Marvel. As of this month, the film has <a class=\"link jsx-1337145738 jsx-3925284146 underlined\" data-cy=\"styled-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/spider-man-brand-new-day-surpasses-star-wars-the-force-awakens-to-become-north-americas-highest-grossing-movie-of-all-time\">overtaken Star Wars: The Force Awakens to become the highest-grossing movie of all time in North America<\/a>, with an overall global box office total that now stands at $2.47 billion. Will it be the highest grossing film of 2026 overall? We&#8217;ll have to wait for Avengers: Doomsday this December in order to find out.<\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"accent-divider\" class=\"jsx-3449795453 divider jsx-2786329600\"><\/div>\n<section class=\"author-sign-off\" data-cy=\"author-sign-off\"><span class=\"stack jsx-59817748 jsx-1927875859\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"rounded jsx-444076027 jsx-4218469134 profile-thumb jsx-2141281959 aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-1-1\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Tom Phillips Avatar\" class=\"progressive-image profile-thumb-img jsx-249361588 jsx-2338608387 expand\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/assets-prd.ignimgs.com\/avatars\/682ae571844d33001df37887\/bafkreidcdvzaebn4npc6hj3ffj6fzlg3kqnfpgazyarf24lfrnboi6lzbe-1747728739638.jpg?crop=1%3A1&amp;width=56&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=80\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"stack jsx-2509706801 jsx-3630940851\"><span class=\"stack jsx-2959124702 jsx-702910195 author-sign-off-header\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/person\/tomphillipsIGN\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"interface jsx-1132626198 jsx-2809511915 bold underlined\">Tom Phillips<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490 muted\">News Editor<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"stack jsx-2509706801 jsx-1220387432\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"author-sign-off-socials\" class=\"jsx-2877214176 author-sign-off-socials\"><button type=\"button\" aria-haspopup=\"listbox\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-label=\"View social links\" class=\"jsx-2877214176 socials-trigger\"><span title=\"X\" class=\"jsx-2877214176 social-icon-avatar\"><span class=\"ign-icon jsx-2877214176 jsx-2750866048 jsx-2788214270\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"jsx-2877214176\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/Twitter.d0b97af5.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"><\/span><\/span><span title=\"Bluesky\" class=\"jsx-2877214176 social-icon-avatar\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"ign-icon jsx-2877214176 jsx-2750866048 jsx-2788214270\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"jsx-2877214176\" alt loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/Bluesky.d8b4aa9b.svg?cors=0\"><\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<div role=\"listbox\" class=\"scrollbar jsx-2772765485 jsx-4243969252 jsx-3705869475 dropdown-menu jsx-3625955085\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/@tomphillipsEG\" id=\"author-sign-off-social-twitterHandle\" class=\"menu-item jsx-3565735818 jsx-3927327418\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490 menu-item-text\" data-text=\"X\">X<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"ign-icon icon-twitter jsx-2750866048 jsx-3701596282\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"icon-twitter\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/Twitter.d0b97af5.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"><\/span><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/tomphillipseg.bsky.social\" id=\"author-sign-off-social-blueskyUrl\" class=\"menu-item jsx-3565735818 jsx-3927327418\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490 menu-item-text\" data-text=\"Bluesky\">Bluesky<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"ign-icon icon-bluesky jsx-2750866048 jsx-3701596282\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"icon-bluesky\" alt loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/Bluesky.d8b4aa9b.svg?cors=0\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"interface jsx-1132626198 sign-off-text\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Tom Phillips is IGN&#8217;s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/tomphillipseg.bsky.social\" class=\"link jsx-1337145738 jsx-3925284146 underlined\" data-cy=\"styled-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer noopener noreferrer\">@tomphillipseg.bsky.social<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Early ideas for Spider-Man: Brand New Day included alternate villains, a British alter ego, and several changes to avoid characters Sony ended up using in its own Spider-Universe films. Speaking to The Bulwark, Spider-Man writer Chris McKenna revealed some of the story concepts discussed and then discarded during what sounds like a lengthy search for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,243],"class_list":["post-2154942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-ign-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2154942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2154942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2154942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2154942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}