Spider-Man: Brand New Day has arrived, and maybe you're being completely and totally normal about it. Or, maybe you're like me, and the potential storylines that could come next for Spider-Man 5 and beyond are keeping you up at night à la the Charlie Day red-string meme from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Because Spider-Man: Brand New Day picks up the pieces from No Way Home quite nicely and also leaves several open paths for what could happen next to Tom Holland's Spider-Man, I've dusted off my comic book collection and put together a list of potential plot theories for Spidey's future in the MCU. Some are a little far-fetched, and others make a whole lot of sense (to me, anyway). From Peter teaming up with another Spider-Man, who isn't Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield, to what could happen in Jake Schrier's upcoming X-Men movie... I've speculated about it all below.
But be warned: there are major spoilers below. When you're done, check out our list of 43 Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs.
Ned Leeds becomes the Hobgoblin
Hear me out: this is set up in Spider-Man: No Way Home as a potential future storyline, and then made all the more valid following Ned's graduation from MIT in Brand New Day.
In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tobey Maguire's Peter 2 tells Ned that his best friend died in his arms after trying to kill him. This is in reference to the events of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3, which saw Peter's best friend Harry Osborn decide to avenge his father's death and become the second iteration of the Green Goblin (to which Andrew Garfield's Peter 3 nods, as a similar storyline followed in The Amazing Spider-Man 2). Ned then looks at Tom Holland's Peter and promises that he will never, ever, turn into a villain and try to kill his best friend.
Two things to note here: 1) After Doctor Strange's spell, Peter isn't Ned's best friend anymore, and 2) in the comics, Ned Leeds is revealed to be the Hobgoblin, a wannabe Green Goblin who manages to get his hands on Norman Osborn's Goblin Formula and tech with the intention of killing Spider-Man.
Would there need to be a Norman Osborn or Oscorp on Earth-616 to make this work? Well, the big evil tech corporation job that MJ turned down in Brand New Day sure did sound a bit like Oscorp... so there is that possibility. But no, we wouldn't necessarily need existing Goblin tech for Ned to become the Hobgoblin, because he's smart enough to develop the tech himself. The Spidey Tracker that Ned invents is next-level surveillance tech that is even able to track Spidey on another planet. That alone tells me that ol' Ned could whip up some seriously scary technology with the right (or wrong) resources.
Miles Morales is the Spider-Man tracked "off-planet"
In that brief post-credits scene, we see a close-up of Ned's Spidey Tracker. The tracker shows Spidey on a planet that goes far beyond the moon of Earth-616, and registers his status as "off-planet." There are two reasons why I think this could very well be Miles Morales, and, once again, the first occurs in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Towards the end of No Way Home, Electro (Jamie Foxx) finally sees the Spidey from his universe, Andrew Garfield, unmasked. In a sweet and funny moment, Electro says, "You're from Queens, you got that suit, you help poor people... I just thought you was gonna be black." Garfield's Spidey immediately apologizes, to which Electro says, "There's gotta be a black Spider-Man out there somewhere." Because this is the movie that cracked open the multiverse, this scene alone meant a live-action Miles movie was absolutely possible.
The second reason is the simple fact that Kevin Feige recently confirmed that they were working on a live-action Miles Morales movie.
It's also possible that this interplanetary Spider-Man could be Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield (though Garfield laughed and said he had absolutely no idea when asked about this by ScreenRant). It could also, perhaps, be the planet Battleworld... which is where all the heroes of Earth-616 are sent to fight to the death by the Beyonder, and is the central location of the Avengers: Secret Wars comics... which serve as the basis for the upcoming movie of the same name... but the planet is supposed to be much further out than what we see on the Spidey Tracker, so anything is possible, really.
Peter Parker encounters the alien symbiote in Avengers: Secret Wars
Whether Tom Holland wants to admit it on a podcast or not, Avengers: Secret Wars is the comic book arc that introduces the alien symbiote that gives Spidey his iconic black suit and eventually attaches itself to Eddie Brock, who indeed becomes Venom. In Secret Wars #8, Peter Parker encounters the alien symbiote, which drops into his hand and spreads over his entire body, turning his costume black and white. It isn't until The Amazing Spider-Man #300 that the symbiote returns and attaches itself to scorned journalist Eddie Brock while he's sitting in a church asking God to forgive him for being awful to Spider-Man (much like that popularly memed scene from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3 that sees Topher Grace sitting in the pews asking God to kill Spider-Man, though not as funny).
While the black suit and the introduction of Venom are an important part of Secret Wars, the overall arc sees the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and more trapped on a planet known as Battleworld, where they're forced to fight the villains of that planet essentially to the death. It'll be the most ambitious MCU adaptation for sure (but I do really want to see Holland's Spidey in that suit).
Spider-Man is indirectly responsible for the creation of anti-mutant technology
Peter is sort of directly responsible... though the inhibitor wasn't made with ill intentions. In the comics, an anti-mutant device known as an inhibitor collar pops up in X-Men #141. The collar, created by mutant-killing military scientist Bolivar Trask, was placed around the neck of any mutant who was wrongfully thrown into the South Bronx Mutant Containment Center as part of the passing of an unjust law known as the Mutant Registration Act. The inhibitor collar prevents mutants and any super-powered beings from using their powers.
In Brand New Day, Peter develops the technology with the intention to control his own rapidly changing powers, while also knowing that it can be used on just about any being with powers. He attempts to attach it to the Hulk, but no dice. He successfully attaches it to Jean Grey, whom he turns over to Bill Metzger under the guise of 'doing the right thing.' We see Bill and his cronies use it as a way to subdue Jean in order to experiment on her, and we never see it again after Spidey is shot and Jean is rescued. We also never see Bill again, either.
It's important to note that the Department of Damage Control was using tech from captured/defeated villains, such as Shocker, to develop weaponry that can take down super-powered beings. You might recall that they used Shocker's arm console to develop guns that have the power to dissolve Peter's artificial webbing. It's likely that Bill and his cronies took the inhibitor technology and are hiding out somewhere... and that this will all be revisited in the upcoming standalone X-Men movie.
Spider-Man teams up with the X-Men
Think of it this way: if Peter was able to invent the inhibitor, the X-Men might need his help in order to destroy or reverse it. There's also the fact that Spider-Man and the X-Men have teamed up several times throughout comic book history, including one specific arc where Spider-Man and Jean Grey work together at the X-Mansion to mentor young mutants.
But there's also a chance (hear me out) that Spider-Man could be teaming up with the X-Men to take down Dark Phoenix... which is the supervillain Jean Grey turns into after being overwhelmed by her own powers and manipulated by Mastermind. The ending of Brand New Day does imply that Jean is on a bus headed upstate to the X-Men mansion (which also implies that the X-Men haven't even been formed as a team yet) and is therefore about to learn how to use her powers correctly and for good. But because we've already seen just how powerful she is and what evil she's capable of right off the bat, it wouldn't surprise me if the MCU decided to go ahead and adapt the Dark Phoenix Saga.
Dark Phoenix aside, Jean has always been morally gray in the comics (from killing Rogue to making Cyclops kill Professor X), but introducing a founding member of the X-Men into the MCU as a supervillain was a choice... and one they might decide to go a bit deeper with.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in theaters now. For more on the MCU, here's our guide to how to watch all the Marvel movies in order.
