It’s a Brand New Day for the Spider-Man franchise—and so the title Spider-Man: Brand New Day is pretty appropriate. Not only does it make sense in terms of where we left the story, it also makes sense in terms of moving on from the “home”-related naming convention of Tom Holland‘s first trilogy (Homecoming, Far From Home, No Way Home). Holland made a virtual appearance at CinemaCon to thank exhibitors for supporting the franchise and announce the title of the fourth film, promising that the movie—set to premiere July 31, 2026—would be a “fresh start” (via Variety).
Appearing in Vegas in person for the CinemaCon presentation was Brand New Day director Daniel Destin Cretton (Shang-Chi And The Seven Rings). Cretton was originally supposed to helm the next Avengers film when it was still called Avengers: Kang Dynasty, but was shuffled to a different project when the Avengers series got a “fresh start” of its own. Speaking on the upcoming Spidey film, which is scheduled to film this summer, Cretton said, “I’m spending my time exploring the next stage of this amazing character with a team of the most incredible artists in the world. We’re all, just daily, nerding out over the suit, how to swing, how to create an event, an emotional story, and a ride that we haven’t really seen before.”
At the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter Parker (Holland) was left alone with no friends or loved ones; a spell from Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) not only erased the world’s memory of Spider-Man’s secret identity, but it also erased the world’s memory of Peter Parker. Brand New Day references a similar storyline in Marvel Comics (published in 2008) in which everyone forgot about Peter’s secret identity. In the comics, his friends and family at least remembered who Peter was, but the event did erase Peter’s marriage to Mary Jane Watson, effectively providing a soft reboot for the series.
Holland’s MJ, Zendaya, is set to return for Spider-Man: Brand New Day alongside Jacob Batalon, who plays the couple’s bestie Ned. Stranger Things‘ Sadie Sink has also reportedly been cast in the film, and as the X-Men begin to infiltrate the Marvel Cinematic Universe, rumors abound that she may be playing Jean Grey. (“This is news to me,” Sink said of the rumor in a recent interview, declining to speak on the Marvel subject any further except to say the rumors are “awesome”: “It’s a great character, so it was cool to read!”) Avengers: Doomsday, featuring several original X-Men trilogy stars, will premiere a few months before Spider-Man: Brand New Day, so who knows what the state of mutantkind in the MCU will be by then.
The live action Spider-verse wasn’t the only film to get a title and update at CinemaCon. True fans may remember that we were originally supposed to get a new animated Spider-Verse film in 2024 before it got pushed back. Unfortunately, the new date is still a ways off, now set to premiere June 4, 2027. To ease that particular pain, producer Phil Lord and co-directors Bob Persichetti and Justin K. Thompson showed a teaser for Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse, which reportedly included footage in which Miles declares “I’m gonna do my own thing.”
Much like Peter Parker in Brand New Day, Miles will find himself quite isolated in the last installment of the Spider-Verse trilogy. “Gwen and his other friends may or may not be enough to help him save the family that’s been the leading part of the entire system,” Lord, also a co-writer of the film, teased. He promised that the movie will be a “massive finale” fit for the big screens (per Variety). “We know how important this franchise is to so many people around us. We just could not run it back,” the Spider-Verse team declared on the CinemaCon stage. “So, we decided we needed to take the time to make sure we got it just right.”
