Avengers: Infinity War may have been released eight years ago, but we're still noticing new details about the film. One Marvel fan has even spotted a continuity goof in the MCU movie involving Iron Man.

The scene in question comes in the Greenwich Village street battle when Thanos' generals make a surprise attack to try and steal the Time Stone from Doctor Strange. Preparing for the upcoming fight, Tony Stark transforms into his Mark 50 armor using "nanotech".

However, after he takes the glasses off his face, they disappear into thin air in his hands. You can watch the moment in this clip shared by Dr. Kohan on Twitter below.

It's quite a funny transition as the glasses seem to disappear as Tony lowers his arm. Fans have been reacting to the goof on Twitter, with some kicking themselves about missing this when they first watched.

Some have also pointed out that there might be an explanation that the glasses are simply absorbed into his suit. This is possible given that nanotechnology isn't completely explained in the MCU and seems to be extremely powerful. Although, as the original poster pointed out, if it can be absorbed, why did Stark even bother taking them off?

Although one Marvel fan has a simple conclusion: "They don't disappear. They just merge with the suit. Why did he take them off then? Swagger." Seems about right to us…

Next up in the MCU is Avengers: Doomsday, which sees Robert Downey Jr. return in a new role as Doctor Doom. Despite an impressive trailer, a lot remains unknown about the upcoming movie, which hits theaters in December.

For more Marvel, check out our guides to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows, as well as our guide on how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

By now, you've probably seen all the major Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs, references, and cameos.

From the Fisk poster to the nods to Marvel's comic book history, and parallels to Insomniac's Spidey games, there's enough there for the Spidey-Senses to tingle on any webhead fanatic.

But over on Reddit, one lesser-spotted Damage Control curio has cropped up – and ignited a debate over its identity.

As you can see below, the top floors of Damage Control HQ contain various assorted instruments and experiments. One of those includes a rather grisly skull, which certainly isn't of human origin.

The original poster, who admits they're still trying to figure out what exactly it is, gives the Lizard as a possible answer.

The villain, first introduced in 1963's The Amazing Spider-Man #6, rapidly became a fearsome member of Spider-Man's rogues' gallery, even appearing in live-action in The Amazing Spider-Man and later in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

We, and others, disagree. Instead of the Lizard, it appears to be the remains of the Chitauri, the alien species used by Loki to kickstart an invasion of Earth during 2012's The Avengers. The extraterrestrials have some shared history with Spider-Man too, with their tech being stolen as part of Spider-Man: Homecoming's plot.

Still, the question remains as to what Damage Control is up to. Brand New Day proved they are, again, up to no good when it comes to tracking and experimenting on mutants. If they're keeping aliens out in the open, what else are they keeping behind closed doors? Maybe we don't want to know.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in cinemas. For a breakdown of the finale, read our guides on the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending and Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day finally introduced the MCU's version of a major X-Men character by bringing Sadie Sink's Jean Grey into Spider-Man's story. She's initially the villain in the new movie, using her powers to hope between innocent people as she tries to infiltrate Damage Control.

It's a pretty brutal power and one that causes a lot of hurt along the way, breaking Peter Parker's heart when she pretends to be MJ, causing Bruce Banner to become the Hulk once again, and seemingly hurting a fair few of New York City's civilians too. However, now the movie's screenwriters have clarified that there's one line that Grey does not cross in the movie.

"I think technically, she’s not responsible for any deaths. But you come away with the impression, certainly, that she’s caused a lot of destruction in mayhem," Erik Sommers, who co-wrote the film with Chris McKenna, told The Hollywood Reporter.

"Even if you’re going to have a villain who really is redeemed at the end or goes through a transformation, you have to start them off in a place where they feel formidable. If it doesn’t feel like this is going to be someone who is a challenge to our hero, physically, emotionally, mentally, then you don’t really buy it."

Given that Grey is set to become a key part of the upcoming X-Men movie, this feels like the correct approach. While we love morally grey characters in the MCU like Loki, Scarlet Witch, and Bucky Barnes, it would be a tricky starting point for the telepathic mutant.

Ahead of the next stage of the MCU, the X-Men cast is starting to fill out. Alongside Sink's Grey, Ready or Not star Samara Weaving is down to play Emma Frost and Heartstopper star Kit Connor is in the running as Cyclops. With D23 just around the corner, we could get more actors announced very soon.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in theaters now. For more on the movie, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review and our guide to how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is all about the fallout from Doctor Strange's memory-wiping spell. It appears the writers also forgot something important – about The Punisher.

As pointed out by a stream of fans online, Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) tells Peter Parker's Spider-Man (Tom Holland) that he's "never had a friend" like him.

High praise for the wallcrawler, indeed. However, this line not only forgets Frank's shared history with Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock, but also his old war buddy Curtis from The Punisher.

Probably the closest thing Frank ever had to a true friend and confidant, Curtis admittedly did make a brief, ghostly appearance during this year's special The Punisher: One Last Kill.

"Curtis was my FIRST thought too!! He was definitely the best friend Frank had; he was so dependable and loyal to him," one wrote on Twitter in response to a post that kickstarted the whole debate.

"Did they genuinely forget his day one?" asked another.

There are counter-arguments to be made, though. As one posits, "I’m assuming he meant innocence and optimism, which Curtis has, but Peter just has more of it."

Another added, "Let’s be honest. The average audience member going to watch Spider-Man is not watching the Punisher series."

Still, The Punisher (as well as the clutch of Netflix street-level Defenders shows) are now officially part of MCU canon. It could be read as Curtis erasure but, more than likely, was just a throwaway comment to show how much Peter means to Frank. Let's not put Marvel Studios in the crosshairs of social media discourse just yet.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in cinemas. For a taste of what's next, head on over to our guide on upcoming Marvel movies.

The Incredible Hulk is the unquestionable dark sheep of the MCU, so much so that it saw star Edward Norton replaced by Mark Ruffalo as the MCU's Bruce Banner till this day. But it could have been very different, as Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier has confirmed there's a "longer" and "darker" cut of the movie, featuring even more MCU cameos.

Speaking to Collider about his new Netflix horror The Last House (which our favorite movie critic Hideo Kojima recently compared to Death Stranding), Leterrier not only confirmed the existence of an (even) darker extended cut, but also teased a major Marvel cameo, in addition to Tony Stark's appearance in the film's post-credits scene.

"There's a darker cut," Leterrier said. "Longer, obviously. It's not an hour, but it's very interesting because The Incredible Hulk was the first movie sort of starting the MCU. So there were all these ideas that started many of the stories you're following now, and that was in The Incredible Hulk."

Iron Man technically kickstarted the MCU, but The Incredible Hulk quickly followed. Released barely 6 weeks after Iron Man in the summer of 2008, both movies were made concurrently and could be considered the twin building blocks of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

While Norton would never return, many elements from The Incredible Hulk have recurred over the years, including William Hurt's Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross playing a key role in Captain America: Civil War and Abomination popping up in She-Hulk and Shang-Chi. 2025's Captain America: Brave New World even served as something of a pseudo-sequel to The Incredible Hulk, with Tim Blake Nelson's Leader returning to cause trouble some 17 years later.

Leterrier doesn't go into much detail about the footage actually shot and left on the cutting room floor. But he does reveal one sequence, which never made it in front of cameras, was set to feature none other than Steve Rogers, two years before Chris Evans was cast as the MCU's first Captain America.

"It was a little ahead of its time, so we didn't [shoot] it. But Captain America was in it," Leterrier said. "Tony Stark was in it – he's still in it. And the opening was actually quite interesting. It was set in the North Pole. It was cool. A little too dark." As for whether The Incredible Hulk deleted scenes will ever see the light of day, Leterrier notes that: "Some got out, some are still to be shown." Maybe one day, the MCU's least-loved movie will be redeemed.

Things are certainly looking up for the MCU of late. Following a post-Endgame slump, Marvel Studios is back on top following the release of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is well on track to make over $2 billion at the box office and become one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Up next on the big screen is Avengers: Doomsday, with news expected at Marvel's D23 panels this Friday.

For more on the MCU, check out our guide on how to watch the Marvel movies in order, and our list of all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows.

Ms. Marvel actor Iman Vellani has responded to Spider-Man: Brand New Day's box office record – and what it means for the eternal debate surrounding superhero fatigue.

Speaking on the Revenge Of podcast, Vellani – who last played Ms. Marvel in 2023's The Marvels – commented on Spider-Man: Brand New Day's historic box office success, which saw it overtake Avengers: Endgame as the biggest US domestic opening on record.

"People showed up on the first week," Vellani said of the fourth Spider-Man MCU movie, which is well on its way to grossing $2 billion worldwide.

"Nobody really believed in superhero fatigue. Nobody really believed that this movie was going to fail and they were over [superhero movies]. They wanted it to succeed. I think we’re so used to being cynical and assuming that everything new coming out is going to suck and it’s all propaganda, or people’s attention spans are low. No, we can appreciate a good thing when we see it."

Whether the myth of superhero fatigue has dissipated is still unclear. After all, we're only a few months removed from Supergirl stumbling at the box office. Last year's Marvel efforts, including Thunderbolts, were well-received but also failed to ignite with audiences.

Thankfully, the MCU has big names in its future. Two Avengers movies, an X-Men title, Black Panther 3, and a Ryan Gosling-starring Ghost Rider are all on the schedule for the next few years. As Marvel Studios gets set to turn 20, that will be the real test – especially as Spider-Man appears to have the Midas touch at the cinemas regardless.

For a web-tastic breakdown of Brand New Day, swing on over to our guide to the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending.

If you're playing catch-up ahead of Avengers: Doomsday, you'll need to look at how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld says the live-action X-Force movie was going to feature none other than Josh Brolin as Stryfe, the supervillain counterpart to X-Men hero Cable.

"The X-Force movie that was going to be coming to screen that Fox had planned before Disney bought the Fox catalog; he was absolutely in that movie," Liefeld told The Direct. "Spoiler alert! It would have been great… There were, at one point, discussions about him being in an after-credits scene in Deadpool 2, but they struck that."

Liefeld's X-Force comic hit shelves in 1991, with Cable, the son of Jean Grey and Scott Summers aka Cyclops, leading his own Black Ops team consisting of Boom-Boom, Cable, Cannonball, Domino, Feral, Shatterstar, and Warpath. In X-Men 1997 season 2, the team consists of Cable, Psylocke, Archangel, Jubilee, and Sunspot. A live-action movie was announced in 2013, with Deadpool 2 writer Drew Goddard officially set to write and direct in 2017. Sadly, the movie was one of the many casualties of Disney's acquisition of Marvel, and was cancelled as a result.

Continued Liefeld: "I think it's safe to say, Josh [Brolin] was really excited, because he signed a multi-picture deal, and he was excited about the prospect of not only playing Cable, but longtime fans of X-Force know that he would have been portraying Stryfe as well."

Before going on to become Thanos in the Avengers movies, Brolin starred as Cable in Deadpool 2. It would've been cool to see him reprise the role... and even cooler to see him play Stryfe, as we haven't seen him since his non-speaking appearance in X-Men: The Animated Series circa 1995.

X-Men is eyeing a tentative 2028 release date. You can keep up to date with everything the MCU has in store with our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows.

Daredevil star Charlie Cox has said he's not in Avengers: Secret Wars – and he really wants us to believe him.

"No, I'm not going to be in – no," he said at MCM Birmingham in the UK, when asked if Daredevil would appear in Secret Wars after Avengers: Doomsday. "Yes, sorry. And you can believe me now!"

Daredevil is not on the cast list for Doomsday, but, so far, the Secret Wars cast is a complete mystery. So, while Cox might want us to believe him, we're reserving judgement for now.

We will see Cox in Daredevil: Born Again season 3, however, which is set to debut in March 2027. Along with Cox, Elodie Yung's Elektra will also be making a comeback.

The cast of Doomsday, meanwhile, includes the likes of Chris Evans's Steve Rogers, Anthony Mackie's Captain America, Chris Hemsworth's Thor, and Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom.

Marvel went to great lengths to keep Evans's return secret, too, with the actor revealing his codename on the project was Luke Cage.

"Within the script, my character was called Luke Cage just in case things leaked," Evans shared at Fan Expo Boston, adding: "On the call sheets, I was called Luke Cage. Even on set, if I was going to set, they'd be like, 'Luke Cage is travelling.' It was such a locked-down thing."

Avengers: Doomsday arrives this December 18, while Secret Wars follows on December 17, 2027.

In the meantime, fill out your watchlist with our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and TV shows.

Chris Evans has revealed his Marvel codename used to keep secret his Steve Rogers return in Avengers: Doomsday, and it explains a confusing leak.

Evans's return as Steve Rogers was kept tightly under wraps, until it was finally revealed in the first teaser for the Marvel Phase 6 movie.

"Within the script, my character was called Luke Cage just in case things leaked," Evans shared at Fan Expo Boston, adding: "On the call sheets, I was called Luke Cage. Even on set, if I was going to set, they'd be like, 'Luke Cage is travelling.' It was such a locked-down thing."

This explains why a set leak included a "Luke Cage house" in a 1960s style – rather than referring to Cage himself, it appears to have been Steve's home, instead.

Evans has also teased he has a "brutal" storyline coming up. "The Russos love beating up Steve Rogers. Their favourite thing to do is to just beat the crap out of him," he shared. "To them, that's what makes a hero, and that's someone who gets punched so many times but still gets up."

Along with Evans, the rest of the supersized cast includes Anthony Mackie's Captain America, Chris Hemsworth's Thor, Letitia Wright's Shuri, the Fantastic Four, the Fox-era X-Men, and Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom.

Avengers: Doomsday arrives this December 18. While you wait, check out our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows for everything else the MCU has in store.

Rosario Dawson has addressed her cut Spider-Man: Brand New Day cameo, revealing she had a post ready to go on Instagram before she heard the news. The actor, who plays Claire Temple in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was due to appear in the new film before her part was ultimately left on the editing room floor.

"When I tell you my post was already ready with my BTS, with my grandson wearing all his Spider-Man stuff because he loves Spider-Man, then I got the email," she told the crowd at Galaxy Con recently. "So yeah… No. So I'm a reject of Spider-Man and I'm a reject of the devil's rejects. Like I still love it because everybody's in it. It still means that, you know, my character is somewhere in that same universe. And I really love that. So, I hope I get to be Claire again."

She also revealed that "Spider-Man is really huge" for her because her uncle is a comic book artist who drew the character at one point.

The movie's writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers recently revealed that Claire's cameo took place early in the movie, post Spider-Man's fight with Scorpion. They told The Wrap that Peter Parker ended up in hospital and had a scene with Dawson's Night Nurse.

"The scene they did was a good scene I think the only reason it’s not in the final cut was just it was probably cut for time because it was very good," they explained.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now. For more on the Marvel movie, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review and our Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained.

New Sinister Six movie concept art has surfaced, revealing a look at an alternate reality where we got Spider-Man facing down half-a-dozen of his most iconic villains instead of battling Jean Grey in the MCU.

Artist Victor Martinez posted the images on Instagram, which showcase Spider-Man (though it's admittedly not clear which iteration) battling Doctor Octopus upside down on the ceiling of a library.

"Sharing some more concept art I did for an unmade/untitled Spider-Man film from years ago," Martinez wrote. "Which project do you think it’s from?… and what sort of mess has Spidey gotten into this time?"

Martinez added, "This would’ve been a fun one with lots of villains... 6 to be exact!... iykyk."

Whispers of a Sinister Six movie go back years. Daredevil's Drew Goddard was once attached to write and direct the project as far back as 2016, prior to Spider-Man's official entry into the MCU.

The supervillain group typically consists of Doctor Octopus leading a group of assorted members of Spider-Man's rogues' gallery (including the likes of Scorpion, Electro, Vulture, and Shocker).

They made a prominent appearance during Insomniac's first Spider-Man game, where Mister Negative also joined their ranks in a bid to take down the wallcrawler.

As of now, Doc Ock's last film appearance was Alfred Molina reprising the role – through some multiverse trickery – in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

No word yet on Spider-Man's immediate cinematic future, but we can't imagine the Sinister Six skulking into sight anytime soon, especially given how low-key (and refreshing) Brand New Day felt in comparison to previous Spidey movies.

For more on what's next in the MCU, check out our guide to upcoming Marvel movies.

Jean Grey actor Sadie Sink thinks it's a "smart choice" to have a "younger generation of mutants" for Marvel's upcoming X-Men movie.

Upon being asked by Entertainment Weekly how it feels to have a universe starting with Jean Grey as a building block, Sink replied, "It's really cool. Also, I think it was such a smart choice, too, to start young and have this younger generation of mutants. It’s a cool take on it, but as it starts to assemble and everything, I’m really excited about having a group of people to feel like you’re on a team with."

Sink added that she is currently being pulled in to screen test with various actors for auditions because it is "important" to establish chemistry within certain dynamics.

In a separate interview with Vanity Fair, Sink – who made her debut as Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day – said she would start filming X-Men next year.

Right now, a handful of actors have been confirmed to appear in Jake Schreier's undated X-Men movie.

They include Sink, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, and Kit Connor as Cyclops/Scott Summers. Other rumored names include Charles Melton as Beast and Cailee Spaeny as Rogue.

D23 appears to be the most likely destination for a full-throated reveal of the main cast. A Disney panel, featuring Marvel Studios, takes place on August 14.

Marvel will be hoping X-Men can mirror the success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is currently on course to gross over $2 billion at the box office.

For more, check out the upcoming Marvel movies on the way, plus a look back at the full Marvel timeline throughout the decades.

It sounds as though Steve Rogers will be put through the wringer in Avengers: Doomsday as Chris Evans reveals how directors Joe and Anthony Russo love to see the Marvel hero at rock bottom.

"The Russos love beating up Steve Rogers. Their favourite thing to do is to just beat the crap out of him," said Evans at Fan Expo Boston (Via ComicBook). "To them, that’s what makes a hero, and that’s someone who gets punched so many times but still gets up."

We last saw the hero in Avengers: Endgame when he went back in time to return the Infinity Stones to their separate timelines. However, rather than returning to the present, Rogers remained in the past with his love, Peggy Carter. Endgame concluded with old man Rogers passing on the shield to Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson.

The star went on to say that Rogers' arc in Doomsday is "brutal" but necessary, as it showcases his true nature and values. Could Rogers' return to the present cost him the person he holds dear?

During the Marvel panel at SDCC 2026, it was confirmed that Peggy Carter star Hayley Atwell would return in Doomsday. Could the Russos be bringing her back just to kill her off? We don't doubt it, as that seems to be the plan with the original Fox-era X-Men too.

When Evans' Doomsday casting was first revealed, fans were pretty shocked to hear that Rogers was returning. Marvel heads wondered how the hero made his way back to Earth 616, and how the movie would handle old man Rogers. Then, as the first Avengers: Doomsday trailer hit the internet, theories on Rogers' identity started to swirl, with many questioning if the Rogers we see in the clip is really Hydra Cap.

However, it is important to note that until the Avengers: Endgame rerelease hits the big screen, we don't have the full picture yet. The upcoming rerelease will contain new footage, deleted scenes, and a special ending which is set to bridge the gap between Endgame and Doomsday. With that, the rerelease may change the Marvel timeline as we know it.

Doomsday arrives this December 18. For more, check out our Avengers: Doomsday trailer breakdown, and keep up with other upcoming Marvel movies and shows.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day actor Eman Esfandi has, in no uncertain terms, debunked a popular theory about the identity of MJ's boyfriend.

"I am not, never have been, and never will be 'Paul'," Esfandi wrote on Twitter.

Confused? The Paul in question was recently introduced in the comics as MJ's boyfriend, later marrying her and adopting children together.

Fans, however, reacted negatively. Paul was soon seen as shorthand for intrusive original characters only brought in to not-so-subtly shake up the status quo.

When coupled with what some felt was a mischaracterization of Peter Parker and an interminable Venom storyline that saw MJ become attached to the symbiote, Paul largely became one of the most notable failed experiments in modern-day Marvel comics.

Esfandi, who also plays Ezra Bridger in the live-action Ahsoka series, played into that sense of feeling and joked, "To those of you I saw in the comments defending my honor and saying I’d never accept that role… thank you."

So, the jury is still out on who exactly Esfandi is playing. In the credits, he's listed merely as The Boyfriend, which only raises suspicions further. After all, do you give an actor familiar to Star Wars fans only a 30-second cameo in the biggest movie of the year with no follow-up? It's unlikely. There's a reason, after all, that I've put my neck on the line and declared it a tease for an Oscorp and Harry Osborn-shaped future for Tom Holland's wallcrawler.

The whispers over Paul have done little to dent Spider-Man: Brand New Day's monstrous charge at the box office. It's currently cleared $1.5 billion and is well on track for a $2 billion finish before the end of August, ensuring it will become the highest-grossing Spider-Man movie (and non-Avengers MCU movie) of all time.

Whether Esfandi turns up again, there's plenty in Brand New Day's final act worth talking about. Here, we break down the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending and Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene – including how it might set up Avengers: Secret Wars and Spider-Man 5.

For more, here's how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

After months of silence on press tours, premieres, and red carpets, Spider-Man: Brand New Day star Sadie Sink has finally spoken about playing Jean Grey in the MCU.

In an interview with Variety, Sink not only confirmed the obvious (she is appearing in Jake Schreier's X-Men movie), but also her early conversations surrounding the psychic mutant's future.

"The more I've gotten into it and researched, what makes them special is that they are all incredibly flawed and maybe have done bad things. That makes them more compelling, complex characters and a more complex hero if they don't start out that way. And they have to find their relationship to their powers," Sink said.

"So, knowing Jean's struggle will be important in the future of her character and where she goes, just makes her really well-rounded, which I'm excited for."

Despite those talks with her upcoming director, Sink – a self-confessed X-Men newbie – is still none the wiser about where Jean is heading next after audiences witnessed her on a bus during the course of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending.

"I don't really know yet, to be honest," Sink said. "And when I say 'I don't know,' I mean I really don’t know."

Sink will soon be joined in the MCU by fellow X-Men castmates Samara Weaving as Emma Frost and Kit Connor as Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops.

The X-Men movie is currently undated, though Avengers: Doomsday is out on December 18, with Secret Wars to follow in 2027.

For more, check out the upcoming Marvel movies heading your way very soon.

Tom Holland's younger brother helped contribute to one of Spider-Man: Brand New Day's most memorable and low-key scenes.

The moment in question saw Peter Parker – in full Spider-Man costume – hanging out with MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon). Peter and Ned even spend the day building a LEGO Star Wars X-Wing set, with MJ sketching them.

But that wasn't a member of the art crew or even Zendaya putting pencil to paper. Instead, as revealed on an Instagram reply chain (H/T Pop Culture News), Paddy Holland was the one who drew the piece.

Away from Spider-Man's crimefighting and swinging around New York, the quieter moment amid the hunt for Sadie Sink's Jean Grey stood out as one of Spider-Man: Brand New Day's emotional highs – especially as it deals with the fallout from Spider-Man: No Way Home's memory-erasing spell.

As mentioned on Amy Poehler's Good Hang podcast, Tom Holland revealed that scene was rewritten and reworked on the day of filming.

This isn't the only time one of Tom Holland's brothers have left their mark on a Spider-Man movie, meanwhile.

In No Way Home, younger brother Harry Holland made a cameo as a bicycle thief. Tom Holland later revealed the stunt-laden sequence was 'revenge' for Harry mocking his complaints over hanging upside down for a day of filming. That'll teach him.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in cinemas – and breaking box office records.

For more, check out our breakdown of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending and our collection of Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs.

Kit Connor is reportedly set to star as Scott Summers aka Cyclops in the MCU's upcoming standalone X-Men movie.

According to Deadline, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and director Jake Schreier met with "a number of candidates" and "ultimately landed on Connor last week."

In addition to being one of the founding members of the X-Men, Scott Summers is the romantic partner of Jean Grey, who will officially be played by Sadie Sink (after making her debut as the ultra-powerful mutant in Spider-Man: Brand New Day). This marks three X-Men members that have been cast, including scream queen Samara Weaving as Emma Frost.

Because the X-Men haven't even been formed yet in the MCU, we can infer that the standalone movie will focus on the creation of the team as the young mutants enroll at the Charles Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. The only seemingly odd thing here is that Weaving is 34, while Sink and Connor are 23 and 22, respectively. This may very well be because Emma Frost is already the headmistress of her own mutant academy when Scott, Jean, and co. are enrolled at the Xavier School. We love comic-book accurate writing and casting.

Connor is best known for starring in the hit Netflix queer coming-of-age series Heartstopper, as well as Alex Garland's action thriller Warfare. He's also set to star in the upcoming Elden Ring movie.

X-Men is eyeing a tentative 2028 release date. You can keep up to date with everything the MCU has in store with our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows.

PATCH NOTES: V08.06.2026 – Rockstar Games just confirmed that an extended look at Grand Theft Auto 6 will be unveiled on August 27, 2026. In an unprecedented move, the gameplay reveal will premiere on Netflix – a bold partnership which underscores the belief that GTA 6 will be an unstoppable entertainment juggernaut.

What's the latest on GTA 6?

• Rockstar just announced that an extended look at GTA 6 is coming August 27
• The extended look will premiere on Netflix before hitting the internet

Why you should care

• GTA 6 trailer 2 landed over a year ago
• The game is set to release in 104 days

Who said what?

Meta Shift

• Netflix has six hours of exclusivity over the GTA 6 gameplay reveal

There's been this feeling that Marvel is finally starting to regain some momentum. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is shattering records, becoming the highest-grossing movie of 2026 after generating $1.15 billion from the box office in just seven days. It's the second-fastest movie to hit a one billion revenue threshold of all-time; that crown still belongs to Avengers: Endgame.

The success of Brand New Day does lend some credence to the idea that superhero fatigue isn't quite as pronounced as is frequently claimed, and that its success could even point towards Avengers: Doomsday being on-track to do the impossible come December 18 – surpassing 2013's Grand Theft Auto 5 as the biggest entertainment release of all-time.

Today's announcement that Grand Theft Auto 6 will launch an extended look at its action on August 27, premiering exclusively on Netflix, is a stark reminder of just how much of an entertainment juggernaut this thing is going to be. And that it's more than a video game – it's a monocultural moment that should be treated similar to the biggest entertainment IP in the world.

Netflix calls the reveal a "first-of-its-kind partnership," one which acts as a "reflection of what we hope Netflix is becoming: a place where the most ambitious storytelling, from any medium, can find the biggest possible audience."

In reality, I suspect that this partnership only helps ensure that Netflix obtains the biggest possible subscriber base. While the footage will land on YouTube and other platforms six hours late, there's little doubt in my mind that this reveal will spike month-on-month subscriptions as players (both core and casual) grapple with the FOMO of not being on the frontlines of this conversation.

It's been over a year since GTA 6 Trailer 2 landed, which Rockstar claims reached over 475 million viewers cross-platforms within 24 hours. It's impossible to know what heights this third trailer will reach, but with Netflix adding an air of prestige to the entire event, get ready for Rockstar to shatter records once again.

Known Issue

• There are just 104 days left on the Countdown to GTA 6 and Rockstar is still yet to show very little of the upcoming open-world experience.

Starring Jason and Lucia, GTA 6 will take us back to Vice City and push us out into the wider state of Leonida. After an easy score goes wrong, the two protagonists find themselves enveloped in a criminal conspiracy, forcing the pair to rely on each other more than they ever have before to make it out alive.

That's the basic premise of GTA 6 and, after years of teasers and speculation, we really don't know all that much else. Rockstar has always worked in mysterious ways, although the way it is presenting and marketing this long-awaited sequel is particularly condensed.

With little over 100 days until GTA 6 is due to release, the public hasn't seen any true gameplay – nor has the press had an opportunity to cut through the marketing lines and bring you any sort of first impressions. What are the biggest changes, evolutions, and boundary breaking ideas that will make putting a GTA 6 pre-order down worth it? I honestly couldn't tell you.

Given the anticipation, and how little of this project has been shown, it's a little disappointing that the publisher has effectively locked the first look at GTA 6 behind a paywall. It's not the sort of thing anybody else could get away with in this industry, but that only demonstrates the power that GTA 6 wields over the collective consciousness.

Ultimately, when we're all settling in for what will likely be a 30 minute gameplay showcase on August 27 – detailing the interplay between the two protagonists, how new heist systems intersect with a more socially-connected cohort of NPCs, and the most ambitious open-world in Rockstar's history – we probably won't care all that much.

Patch Notes summary

Rockstar Games works on its own schedule, and the decision to partner with Netflix for an extended look at GTA 6 gameplay speaks volumes for how the developer wants this release to be consumed by the world at large. It's more than a video game – it's a force of nature that's going to draw the sort of attention and discussion that Marvel's 2026 Avengers and Spider-Man movies could only dream of.

The battle for the entertainment throne is fully underway now. Spider-Man: Brand New Day will continue to break records, and I expect there to be a hell of a lot of eyes on Avengers: Doomsday come December. But whether either of these monstrously massive franchises really have the staying power to compete with Grand Theft Auto remains to be seen. I suspect that, come end of year, GTA 6 will reign supreme as the biggest entertainment release of all time.

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One of the biggest questions following Spider-Man: Brand New Day is how does Ned remember Peter at the end of the movie. Well, one Marvel fan may have cracked the case.

Brand New Day picks up four years after Doctor Strange erased the world's memory of Spider-Man's real identity in Spider-Man: No Way Home. However, the spell worked a little too well, as when Parker is finally ready to reunite with his girlfriend MJ and best bud Ned Leeds, he soon realises that nothing he does can jog their memory.

However, right at the end of the movie, Peter visits his local store and sees Ned sitting alone. But just as Peter is about to exit the store, he walks up to Ned and introduces himself. Then, as they go to shake hands, they automatically do their signature best friends handshake, and Ned remembers that Peter is, well, Peter. Read our Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained for the full breakdown.

But how does Ned, who is supposedly under Strange's spell, remember Peter? Well, one Marvel fan thinks that Ned's short stint as a wizard has something to do with it. "What if Ned and Peter accidentally created a spell during that handshake, and that's why he remembered because of it," said the fan on Twitter.

In No Way Home, Peter and Ned did their special handshake whilst Ned was wearing the Sling Ring, but right when the pair clicked their fingers, a spark shot out of the ring. Although he is not a fully trained wizard, it was revealed that Ned has natural magic abilities and was able to open portal gateways in the last Spidey movie. So, what if Ned accidentally put some kind of spell on the handshake, which in turn was triggered when the two shook hands at the end of Brand New Day?

With that in mind, Ned's underlying powers may have broken the spell. However, with MJ it's a completely different story. Zendaya's character told Tom Holland's Peter Parker that she simply doesn't remember him, and because of that, she doesn't love him anymore. Ouch. Let's hope Ned can work more magic in the next Spidey movie.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now. For more on Spidey, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review and our list of Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs and cameos.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is on a generational run at the box office. Not only did the Marvel movie beat Avengers: Endgame's all-time opening weekend record in the US, it's already become the highest-grossing movie of 2026 in less than a week. And now it could be on track to top Star Wars: The Force Awakens' all-time record haul at the US box office.

Per the number-crunchers over at the box office subreddit, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is heading towards a $150+ million second weekend at the US box office. That would put the Marvel Phase 6 movie at over $600 million in the US in less than two weeks, and on track to finally topple Star Wars: The Force Awakens' record gross of $936 million at the domestic box office.

The 2015 Star Wars movie's domestic record has proven unbeatable in over a decade. Even the likes of Avengers: Endgame and Avatar: The Way of Water haven't come close, with Endgame falling short by almost $80 million. Brand New Day, however, has taken off like a rocket ship and blown past even the most optimistic box office projections, all despite having no IMAX screens on opening weekend thanks to The Odyssey. Though if you want to see Spider-Man: Brand New Day on the biggest screen possible, you'll finally be able to this weekend.

Audiences, evidently, can't get enough of Spider-Man as Brand New Day became the highest-grossing movie of the year this week, sailing past Toy Story 5 after just six days on release. That's good news for Marvel, as Kevin Feige recently revealed that Sadie Sink's [redacted character] has "immense significance" and will play a "key role in the future of the MCU." Another person hoping to return is Scorpion actor Michael Mando, who says we've only seen "level one" of Scorpion's potential, with the final level being "the ultimate form of Venom."

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now. For more, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review or our list of Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs and cameos.

After taking a decade-long break from Spider-Man movies, Scorpion star Michael Mando is back as the pointy-tailed villain Mac Gargan in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. But it sounds as though the baddie may just stick around this time, and maybe even reach his full "potential" as one of Venom's hosts.

"The potential growth of [Mac Gargan] is enormous," said Mando to The Hollywood Reporter. "Brand New Day is level one of this character’s potential, and he has at least two or three levels up from here, one of them being the ultimate form of Venom."

First introduced to the Spider-Man comics in 1964, Scorpion is a private investigator turned professional criminal who uses his full-body battle suit fitted with a stinger to take down his enemies, mostly Spider-Man. However, down the line, Mac became the third host of the alien symbiote known as Venom. We have already seen Tom Hardy take shape as reporter Eddie Brock, who becomes physically attached to the alien entity in Sony's Venom film franchise. However, Brock has yet to join the MCU.

Mando made his MCU debut in Tom Holland's first Spidey movie, Spider-Man: Homecoming. The 2016 film saw Scorpion, real name Mac Gargan, engage in dodgy dealings with Michael Keaton’s Vulture, which eventually landed him in prison. But, despite the Homecoming post-credits scene teasing Vulture and Scorpion's plan for revenge, Scorpion was absent from Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home. All the while, Mando was working on Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul.

However, now he is back, it sounds as though Mando is keen to stick around. But the star doesn't want to jinx anything. "That’s exciting to think about for a moment, but I’ve got to let it go because it’s in the hands of Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal," added Mando. "They know what they’re doing, and I have to trust that… I don’t try to predict my destiny in any way."

Marvel may want to utilise all it can from the new Spidey movie. Brand New Day has so far smashed all expectations, kicking off its theatrical run with an unbelievable opening weekend, marking the biggest domestic opening ever in the US.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now. For more on Spidey, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review, Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained, and our list of Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs and cameos.

Destin Daniel Cretton doesn't want the Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings post-credits scene to be an open cliffhanger forever.

In one scene, Xialing takes over the Ten Rings organization, and in another, the Rings themselves are discovered to be sending a signal into space – though what exactly it means has never been explained, and Shang-Chi hasn't been seen again in live-action since the film's 2021 release date.

Cretton's latest film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, has a similarly open-ended post-credits scene, which features the Spidey tracker loacting the webslinger in outer space.

Speaking to TheWrap, Cretton promised that we "will find out" what that Spidey scene means.

"I do think it's frustrating when these things are like left out in the open, and you never see them. And Shang-Chi is one of those. It's still hanging out there," he explained. "I have every intention of answering the question."

We'll next see Shang-Chi in Avengers: Doomsday. The Marvel crossover movie has a supersized cast list that also includes the likes of Anthony Mackie's Captain America and Chris Hemsworth's Thor – though, interestingly, no Spider-Man.

Instead, the Brand New Day post-credits could be setting up Doomsday's sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars.

Cretton is also the co-creator of MCU show Wonder Man, and Wonder Man season 2 was recently cancelled despite the show previously getting an official renewal.

"I love that show to death. If it were up to me, we would be making that show," Cretton shared. "And I do believe that if – and I know this sounds weird – but if it were up to Kevin, we would be doing that show."

Doomsday arrives this December 18. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows for everything else that's on the way.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day actor Niyi Akin may not be a household name, but he stole the show in his brief time on screen.

So much so, in fact, that audiences worldwide have given an outpouring of love and admiration to Akin, who played David – the man psychically 'hijacked' by Sadie Sink's Jean Grey to taunt Tom Holland's Spider-Man during one particularly tense moment in the super-powered cat-and-mouse chase.

In response, Akin posted a series of behind-the-scenes images from Brand New Day on Instagram showcasing the actor in wire training and meeting Tom Holland.

Akin wrote, "Thank you so much for the love and support guys. I was just happy to be a part of it! I remember saying to my family 'I hope I get to be in [Spider-Man] one day" WE THANK GOD, CAUSE IT HAPPENED. This a dream come true [your] friendly neighbourhood superfan."

One image posted, though, may get the Spidey-Senses working and the tear ducts flowing: that of Akin, as a child, holding a Spider-Man figure. In the background, an image from Spider-Man: The Animated Series can be seen.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day isn't just making childhood dreams come true, however. It's also breaking records at the box office – with the highest opening weekend in history in the US and already swinging past $1 billion worldwide.

No word on Spider-Man 5 yet, with Tom Holland saying the path ahead is "unclear".

"Whatever happens with Spider-Man, it'll be very bright and lovely," the Spider-Man actor told Serieously. In the same interview, he also hinted that he knew Miles Morales would join the MCU.

For more, check out our guides on upcoming Marvel movies and the Marvel timeline.

A Spider-Man fan has compared Brand New Day to the Insomniac games, and the similarities are undeniable.

The video, which you can see below, showcases the many, many moves pulled off by Tom Holland's wallcrawler that has its origins in Insomniac's trio of Spider-Man PlayStation titles.

They include Spidey flinging himself from a New York rooftop during the opening act of the fourth Spider-Man MCU movie, propelling himself into an acrobatic flip before swinging through the skyline, a handful of web-based finishers on grunts, and even an eerily similar set-piece as the webhead hurtles towards the ground on a crumbling building.

Director Destin Daniel Cretton has also been vocal about just how much of Insomniac's titles made their way into the finished product of the billion-dollar-grossing megahit.

Cretton told Polygon, "I surrounded myself with people who were obsessive gamers. So a lot of the people in our stunt department loved playing those video games. So they would do screen grabs of their play and bring it in and say like, 'Can we pull this move off?' So that was a great inspiration for things."

That synergy of game design and big-screen spectacle has certainly factored into why Spider-Man: Brand New Day has been such a success.

Already, it holds the record for the biggest US domestic opening at the box office, and is well on its way to a staggering $2 billion total gross worldwide.

The Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending also set up Sadie Sink's Jean Grey for an exciting MCU future, though some are still a little baffled by Ned's 'revelation' in the final scene. Don't be. We have an explainer about that handshake to clear up any confusion.

For more, check out our breakdown of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene. Then, away from Insomniac's undoubted influence, we have more references, winks, and nods listed here in our essential guide to Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs.

Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton has doubled down on his previous comments about the state of the industry regarding Shang-Chi 2's very delayed status.

“When you really look at what happened to the industry, at least from my perspective, it was just like everything went to shit after that," Cretton told TheWrap. "I feel like if Marvel was where it was before, we would have had maybe two sequels already. Who knows?"

Cretton previously told Deadline's Crew Call Podcast that a sequel to the beloved 2021 film was still on the way, but that it's the post-pandemic nature of the industry that has put something of a blocker on it. Cretton himself has also been a bit busy directing Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is already breaking some box office records.

The film stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, a martial arts master who is forced to confront the past he thought he left behind when he becomes involved with the mysterious Ten Rings organization. It's also worth noting that Shang-Chi hasn't appeared in any other movies or in a Disney Plus series, which made fans pretty worried about the sequel's fate until it was announced that Shang-Chi would star in Avengers: Doomsday. He can also be seen facing off with Alan Cumming's Nightcrawler in the trailer.

Shang-Chi 2 does not yet have a release date. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in theaters now. Avengers: Doomsday hit theaters on December 18. For more, check out our guide on how to watch the Spider-Man movies in order, and keep up with upcoming Marvel movies.

As Marvel superheroes go, Spider-Man has suffered a lot more than most. Aside from losing Tony Stark and Aunt May in the MCU, the death of Uncle Ben is often the catalyst that's used to kickstart Peter Parker's entire hero's journey. But through it all, Spider-Man has always remained true to himself, unwaveringly optimistic in the face of loss.

That's his whole schtick really, this resilience that helps carry Spidey through his darkest moments. But Spider-Man: Brand New Day pushes the limits of that more than ever before, not through the death of another loved one but because of an even crueller twist that our hero might never recover from.

At the end of the previous film, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange made everyone forget who Peter Parker is. This spell was needed to help save the day, but that hasn't made it any easier for Peter, who's been forced to live the last four years in solitude.

By the time Brand New Day begins, MJ has moved on with a new boyfriend, still unable to remember that Peter was once the love of her life. Peter remembers, though, haunted by the knowledge that they can never be together again. Or can they?

When Jean Grey discovers Spider-Man's true identity, she threatens to take control of MJ's mind and use her against him, as she has so many other people already. Terrified for MJ's safety, Peter races across town and whisks her away somewhere safe.

Once it seems like the coast is clear, the pair discuss what's going on. Spider-Man tries to explain why MJ is being targeted without giving away who he really is, but talk inevitably turns to their history together. It's as if MJ is on the cusp of remembering, something Peter and we feel when she pulls up the bottom of his mask to take a closer look at him.

In a scene reminiscent of that iconic upside-down snog from 2002's Spider-Man, the pair smooch and embrace. True love's kiss seems to have broken the spell at last and Peter couldn't be happier. That is, until MJ starts describing herself in the third person as they embrace…

Web of deceit

Yep, it turns out Jean has been controlling MJ this entire time just to mess with him, even going so far as to kiss him knowing how much it will hurt.

It's one thing to possess the woman Peter loves, but it's another thing entirely to trick him in such a way. Realising that MJ doesn't remember him after all, that he's no better off than he was four years ago when the spell was first cast, is devastating for Peter in ways Marvel rarely attempts. And to top it all off, Jean then rubs salt in the wound by revealing Peter is never in MJ's thoughts at all.

The scene ends with Jean forcing MJ to jump off the roof, but it's the deceit that hurts most. Spider-Man was always going to catch her in time, but the impact of this cruel twist can't be undone in quite the same way.

During a brief moment of respite, MJ later finds a letter that Peter wrote but never gave to her, one which explains the spell's impact in full and his undying love for her. She quickly confronts him, upset that he didn't give the letter to her himself years earlier.

Peter explains that he was only trying to protect MJ before going on to admit that he still loves her, that she's still everything to him and always will be. But MJ is unable to say any of this back to Peter. She understands why the girl in the letter loved him so much, but she is no longer that girl.

"I don’t love you," says MJ, adding, "I don't even know you."

What Jean did earlier was incredibly sadistic, but the words that come out of MJ's mouth now are even more gut-wrenching – and that's because they're actually true. She really doesn't love him anymore. Sure, the spell's to blame, but the impact is very much the same. Peter is heartbroken beyond measure, experiencing a new kind of loss that tears him apart at the seams.

Poetry in emotion

Both of these scenes hit incredibly hard for us too. After watching this pair fall for each other these past nine years, seeing MJ reject Peter like this is really tough to see. Any breakup would be bad enough, but this is even worse because of how unfair it feels. They should be together, yet they can't be, all because Peter had to make a sacrifice for the greater good.

Such emotional storytelling is still a rarity in the MCU. Some moments have hit hard, of course, but most of them usually revolve around the concept of death. Yondu's funeral, Vision's love persevering, Spidey's own "death" at the end of Avengers: Infinity War… Death is par for the course when it comes to superheroes who risk their lives every day, so these recurring themes are to be expected. What isn't expected is just how gut-wrenching this film's emotional beats are with nary a death in sight.

The circumstances might be fantastical, but the feelings involved are rooted in feelings of loss and rejection that anyone watching can relate to. It helps that Tom Holland has never been better as Spider-Man than he is in these moments, and Zendaya continues to be pitch-perfect too in her delivery, firm in her feeling with a hint of melancholy that comes with knowing the pain her words will cause.

Loss and how Peter keeps fighting despite it remains the driving force, but in unexpected ways that avoid recycling past stories in favour of something new. More than Aunt May's death, more even than Peter saying goodbye to MJ at the end of No Way Home, it's in the pain of these evolving relationship dynamics where Brand New Day sets itself apart as Spidey's most mature MCU outing yet.

What remains to be seen is whether Peter can weather the storm long enough for MJ to return to him. The end of the film hints that this might be possible, especially when we see her holding the same necklace Peter gifted her in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Still, true love might not be enough to break the spell, especially with Doomsday and Secret Wars looming on the horizon.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now. For more, check out the breakdown of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending and our ranking of the best Spider-Man movies.

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.

Kevin Feige has acknowledged that last summer's Fantastic Four: First Steps underperformed.

The film was released in July 2025 and grossed $521.9 million worldwide, despite being billed as a major Marvel blockbuster and including a post-credits scene that directly set up Avengers: Doomsday.

"Many things can be true at once," Feige told Variety, when asked if Marvel's recent misfires were a sign audiences are tiring of the same story. "I think last year's Fantastic Four looked and sounded like nothing that had been done in a superhero movie before, and it only [grossed] $521 million."

Spider-Man: Brand New Day, in comparison, has beaten Avengers: Endgame's record for the biggest domestic opening of all time and currently sits at $932 million worldwide – after just one weekend.

"Brand New Day is very directly a part four. It picks up right after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home and yet it tells a story that resonates. It's ultimately about loneliness and the dangers of staying in our apartments by ourselves, looking at our phones. That resonates across cultures and across the globe right now," Feige explained.

The Fantastic Four box office was made even more disappointing by the fact that it grossed less than Superman, which also released in July 2025 and ultimately made $618.7 million. However, this year's Supergirl flopped at the box office and currently sits at a global total of just under $126 million.

But we'll soon see Marvel's First Family again in Doomsday. Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby's Sue Storm, Ebon Moss-Bachrach's Ben Grimm, and Joseph Quinn's Johnny Storm are all returning, though plot details are thin on the ground at the moment.

Brand New Day is in theaters now, while Doomsday arrives this December 18. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows for everything else that's on the way.

The team behind Spider-Man: Brand New Day have been taking a well-earned victory lap in the press over the last 24 hours, after it was confirmed that the new Marvel Phase 6 movie topped Avengers: Endgame at the box office in the US on its opening weekend. But amidst the congratulatory back-slapping, director Destin Daniel Cretton revealed a key tidbit from production that goes a long way to explaining why Tom Holland is the perfect Spider-Man.

Warning: spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day follow.

During a conversation with Deadline, Cretton revealed that the very first dramatic scene shot captured for the movie was the moment where Peter Parker brings flowers to Aunt May's grave. At the end of a long day (if you'll recall, Peter visits the grave multiple times across the film), as they were about to wrap, Cretton decided to shoot an unplanned version, in case it was needed for the end of the movie. Holland was mic'd up, and improvised the line "You'd be happy to know that I've decided I'm not going to do this alone anymore" on the spot, according to Cretton.

"That statement became the north star of the entire movie," Cretton said. "Now it feels obvious that's where the movie was always headed, but at the time we shot it, we didn't really have that simple core idea yet. We worked backward from that point and realized, 'That's where we're going.' To me, that's the entire movie right there." It's proof, were it needed, that Holland knows his Peter Parker better than anyone (and that maybe he'll make a great screenwriter one day).

Spider-Man: Brand New Day got off to a record-breaking start at the box office this weekend, pulling in some $932 million worldwide, making it the second highest-grossing opening weekend of all time globally, behind Avengers: Endgame's untouchable $1.2 billion. And that was without an IMAX bump, as Spider-Man: Brand New Day is only set to share the biggest screens going with The Odyssey from August 7.

Now that the various cats are out of the bag when it comes to the fourth, secret-shrouded Holland Spidey movie, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige and co have been speaking more freely about the movie's many surprises. Feige even revealed that the film's misunderstood villain, Jean Grey, was instead originally "a very obscure character nobody has ever heard of." A prop modeller on the film also explained where those Mister Negative rumors came from.

Next up for Marvel Studios are VisionQuest on the small screen, and make-or-break team-up movie Avengers: Doomsday on the big screen. Though, as far as we're aware, Tom Holland's Spider-Man won't show up in either. The Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene may offer a few clues about when he'll next swing onto screens.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in theaters. For more on-screen secrets, zip on over to our essential guide on Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs, or dive into our full Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained guide.

The Amazing Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield would return as his webslinging hero – on one condition.

"I don't know. I really don't know," Garfield told The Playlist's The Discourse podcast, when asked what another Spidey project would need to offer for him to return.

"I would need it to be very, very odd. I would need it to be very strange, and I would need it to be completely unconventional and almost – I wouldn't say boring – but I would want it to be just completely unexpected, like a genre of Spider-Man that you've never seen before, that feels very left field," he continued.

Garfield returned for Spider-Man: No Way Home thanks to some multiversal shenanigans (alongside Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker), but he hasn't been seen in the MCU since.

"And I don’t even know what that would be," Garfield added. "Maybe like a road trip movie."

While Garfield might not be making his return as Peter Parker anytime soon, though, you can currently see Tom Holland's Spidey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is in theaters now.

"Taking Spidey back to web-slinging basics, Tom Holland's fourth solo outing as Spider-Man is a blast, with personal stakes to match its evolved spectacle. It's the Multiverse Saga's best movie… at least until Doomsday," reads our 4-star Spider-Man: Brand New Day review.

Next up for Marvel on the big screen is Avengers: Doomsday, which arrives this December 18. In the meantime, check out our guide on how to watch the Marvel movies in order to get up to date.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day hit the big screen last week, and with it, finally revealed who Sadie Sink is playing. But now that the cat is out of the bag, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige says Sink's mutant is set to play a major role in the MCU going forward.

"Sadie’s character is one that our fans know has immense significance within the Marvel Universe, and she plays a key role in the future of the MCU," said Feige to Variety. "I’m just happy that the secret is finally out and that Sadie can stop dodging the question."

As many fans predicted, Sink plays Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The X-Man is one of the most powerful heroes in Marvel comics, with telepathic and telekinetic powers that allow her to control others and manipulate objects from buildings right down to molecular levels. The hero has shown up a number of times in live-action, played by Famke Janssen in the original X-Men trilogy, and then by Sophie Turner in the X-Men prequel films.

It sounds as though Sink's Grey is here to stay, but it is not clear when we will see her again. However, we can probably guess that Grey will be part of the upcoming X-Men movie from Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier. The project has reportedly already cast Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, but Marvel has yet to reveal any official casting details.

It doesn't look like Sink will appear in Avengers: Doomsday, nor will Tom Holland's Spidey. But Feige revealed that Brand New Day "leads into another very well-known Marvel franchise created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby." Could that be the new X-Men movie? Well, among many other Marvel franchises, X-Men was created by Lee and Kirby.

When asked why Marvel decided to keep Sink's role a secret, Feige said, "It’s purely about creating the best possible opening weekend experience for the audience." Well, it looks like it paid off. Brand New Day had an unbelievable opening weekend, earning a staggering $932 million worldwide, marking the biggest domestic opening ever in the US. Brand New Day has a long way to go before beating Avengers: Endgame's massive $2.79 billion total gross, but it is getting there.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now. For more on Spidey, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review, Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained, and our list of Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs and cameos.

Rumors were rife that Spider-Man: Brand New Day would finally bridge a divide that fans have been waiting decades to heal between the MCU and the former Fox X-Men, as speculation swirled around Sadie Sink playing a familiar red-headed hero.

Yet, even as the Sadie Sink reveal played out in the cinema, I stifled a small squeal as Peter's facial recognition from his AI-sidekick EV revealed her to be none other than Jean Grey. Sure, we'd had a brief post-credit scene after The Marvels when Monica Rambeau wakes up in an alternative universe with Beast looking after her, and the mayhem of cameos in Doctor Strange: The Multiverse of Madness (which the less said about the better), but nothing longer-lasting than a brief dopamine fix of seeing a surprise character cameo.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day collides two universes with such ease that you wonder if they always co-existed together. Director Destin Daniel Cretton has ensured that first and foremost this feels like a quintessential Spider-Man film, reminiscent more of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's maturer take on the web-headed hero than the vigorous, quippy teenage version that Tom Holland has become known for. As much as the slow-motion swings, on-the-fly jokes, and identity crisis about who he is behind the mask feel inherently Spider-Man, Brand New Day also doubles as a great X-Men film.

No inhibitions

After an immense period of isolation following the trauma of losing Aunt May and having his identity wiped from the memory of everyone he's ever loved, Peter's spidey-senses become more unreliable. Blackouts, headaches, and destructive behaviour follow as his mutation develops and interrupts his friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man routine. His body's physical reaction to the burnout that comes from never switching off causes his DNA to mutate to become more spider than human, as his arachnid hormones spike. Similar to the plot of many of the X-Men films, Peter now has to decide whether to embrace this darker, less inhibited version of his powers, or to suppress them, control them in an effort to go back to 'normal.' Or as normal as a man who can crawl around the ceiling in a lycra onesie can be.

To begin with, Peter attempts to fix the problem in a Tony Stark-like way by building an inhibitor that will decrease his spider hormones and control his DNA from mutating any further. Despite warnings from Bruce Banner about the dangers of this technology – which could be used to control any enhanced individual (and may be setting up a future X-Men movie) – Peter builds his own means of genetic silencing to cure the parts of his abilities that he doesn't like, namely its self-destructive, primal animalistic side.

The inhibitor is reminiscent of Agents of Shield, where a device was used to control Daisy, aka Quake's, powers to prevent her from imploding the Earth. As opposed to simply copying the plot of X-Men with a serum that cures enhanced individuals, this scientific approach feels far more suited to the former aspiring MIT student.

Back in the Fox days, Magneto's biggest concern was humans creating cures for mutants to not only muzzle their powers but get rid of them entirely, out of fear and prejudice. It comes up time and time again in the X-Men prequels, too, that the biggest threat to mutants (apart from the in-fighting about whether to trust or fear humans) is experimentation on them to create a cure or inhibitor that would stop them from simply existing as themselves.

Mutant mayhem

In the Avengers universe, Peter wouldn't be called a mutant, just superhuman, as he wasn't born with a genetic mutation. But, of course, just like Jean, he is a mutant. Half spider, half human, an individual who is special with powers that other people don’t understand and can fear and want to control. Part of the reason that Jean seamlessly slots into this world is that she’s almost a mirror to Peter.

Peter has to go on his own journey to realise that Jean, as powerful and dangerous as she is, is being exploited simply because she's different. To begin with, this ignorance of the suffering that mutants can face (Mysterio incident aside, he's always been celebrated as one of Earth's Mightiest Heroes) leads Peter to trust the suave director of Damage Control and use his universal inhibitor as a means to stop the supposed baddie, Jean.

Instead, in true X-Men style, the department experiments on Jean in the hopes of manipulating her powers to replicate them and turn regular individuals into telepathic weapons of destruction. In the MCU, we've briefly seen experimentation on Bucky, but this weaponising of superpowers, whatever the cost, is a trope predominantly seen in the X-Men universe.

In the end, Peter learns to embrace what makes him special, as it's a gift, not a curse – a relatable message that comes through time and time again in the X-Men comics and films. Jean feels fully integrated into this universe, an equal and mirror to Peter's own suffering, as they both have to learn to live after immense trauma. And come to terms with the darker, more unyielding depths of their powers that trigger after the devastating loss of people they love.

Alone together

Brand New Day pulls off a rare feat to be able to merge two existing franchises in a way that feels seamless and reminiscent of the crossovers in earlier Avengers movies. Jean also fits in with Peter, as she's a young mutant who is trying to come to terms with who she is outside of her powers and how she navigates this profound responsibility alone. All of which Peter can instinctively relate to, in a way other heroes might not.

The gradual introduction to characters from the wider Marvel canon also helps establish the dynamics and structures of this world ahead of Avengers: Doomsday. A major part of Marvel's shortcomings in the Multiverse Saga has been how disconnected the universe has become. So, it was a welcome change to see echoes of The Infinity Saga's approach to universe-building in Brand New Day. Naturally, Yelena would be concerned with 'big potato stuff' as part of the New Avengers, but is on hand to offer advice to the 'sad' Spider-Man when he stumbles across a potato that's slightly bigger than the 'small, baby' problems he's meant to be solving.

The film also naturally sets up the next film in the MCU slate, Avengers: Doomsday, as it starts to bring different heroes together – Yelena, Peter, Jean and Frank, aka The Punisher – as well as introducing a new technology that most likely will appear again in the future. If we learnt anything from Ultron, it's that even the smartest heroes, when desperate, will utilise questionable inventions to try and protect the Earth from alien invaders, such as the incoming storm with Doctor Doom.

Ultimately, Brand New Day should be used as the blueprint for future MCU crossovers as it merges multiple existing worlds, familiar storylines and characters to show how they co-exist together in one universe. In fact, they may be the only people who can truly understand the isolation, burden, and trauma that comes with being an enhanced individual in a society that fears anyone who is different.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now. For more, check out the breakdown of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending and our ranking of the best Spider-Man movies.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out, and we still don't know who Eman Esfandi is playing (aside from being MJ's new boyfriend, of course). Some fans believe they've figured it out, but given the new influx of wild fan theories... I'm not so sure.

Warning: Mild spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day below!

The common belief seems to be that Esfandi is playing Paul Rabin, who made his first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 6 #1. One fan says that the open captions screenings of Spider-Man: Brand New Day list the actor's character name as Paul, though Esfandi is only listed as "The Boyfriend" in the movie's credits. Until we have public proof of this, however, all we can do is speculate.

In the comics, Peter and Mary Jane encounter Paul after entering his universe while fighting a villain known as the Emissary. Long story short, Mary Jane ends up accidentally sending Peter back to Earth-616 and ends up stuck with Paul for four whole years... and they end up adopting two children. Could Esfandi's new character be Paul?

Well, some other fans think MJ's new boyfriend is either Tarantula, or Boomerang. There's really no basis for either theory other than the characters have similar facial features to Esfandi, but one fan pointed out that there'd be some funny irony in MJ dating a "knock-off" version of Peter, seeing as Tarantula is more or less just that (though much scarier looking in appearance). Another theory, though not as popular, is that Esfandi is playing Harry Osborn (and that the job MJ turns down was indeed a position at OsCorp).

We're not sure if Marvel will go to Sadie Sink-levels of secrecy to keep the identity of Esfandi's character on the low... but a Paul confirmation could be coming our way sooner or later.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in theaters now. For more, check out our breakdowns of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending and Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene.

Good news to those still on a high after watching The Odyssey: Spider-Man: Brand New Day is swinging on to IMAX screens this week.

As revealed by the IMAX Twitter account, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is available in the cinematic format in the US from August 7. Tickets are set to go on sale tomorrow, August 4.

There's even a brand-new poster to mark the occasion, with Spidey swinging away from Jon Bernthal's Punisher during one of the movie's big action sequences.

As per the company, IMAX screenings in Japan, South Korea, and China have already grossed an impressive $23 million.

In a statement, IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond said, "We believe more Spidey fans around the world will want to experience his latest adventure in IMAX – and we hope to be a major driver of both new and repeat viewing for the latest hit in this incredible year for moviegoing."

As Gelfond attested to, it's been an exceptional year already for movies in cinemas – bolstered by both Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, which became the first movie shot entirely in IMAX. The corporation has also confirmed Spider-Man and The Odyssey will share IMAX screens "across select digital IMAX locations in America."

If you ask us, Brand New Day in IMAX is certainly worth another go. The Hulk fight is an obvious highlight, though you can't discount the other action scenes, nor the shots of Spider-Man swinging through the New York skyline.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man: Brand New Day has broken the record for the biggest US domestic opening at the box office, ahead of Avengers: Endgame's $357 million. A billion dollars is also a lock in the next few days, too. But could the IMAX boost take it even further in the coming weeks?

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in cinemas. For more, check out our breakdowns of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending and Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene.

Mahershala Ali has finally spoken out about Marvel's failed Blade reboot, and he's over it.

"Not with me," Ali said when asked by GQ if Blade was still in the works. "No offense to them. I’ve been doing this professionally for pushing 30 years now, and one thing I’ve learned is that what is for you is for you and what is not is not. For whatever reason, that project is not for me. If they wanted to do it, we would’ve done it. So I have to move on, and I have moved on."

The statement comes just days after Marvel boss Kevin Feige said he felt like a "gigantic loser and failure" for not getting the movie off the ground with Ali.

Continued Ali: "Again, you had me under contract, they have billions of dollars, if they wanted to do the movie, we would’ve done the movie. So we’re not doing the movie. I feel creatively redeemed on some level, just in my own journey between me, myself, and I. But I feel ready to move on from the Blade questions. Those questions are for them. They didn’t want to do it, so they should answer that question."

To sum up the long and tumultuous saga: a new Blade movie, one that would introduce the half-vampire hero into the MCU, was announced at San Diego Comic Con in 2021 with two-time Academy Award winner Ali as the titular hero. Bassam Tariq was initially announced as director, but exited the film a month before production was set to begin in 2022 due to creative differences. Some of these creative differences were reportedly due to early scripts that had Blade filming an early 1900s period piece of sorts, rather than set in modern day or on Earth-616 (which is Marvel's main universe).

French filmmaker Yann Demange took over later that year, but production was halted once again due to the WGA strikes, which pushed its 2024 release date to 2025. In 2023, the film was given an (exciting) R rating. In 2024, it was officially removed from the Marvel release calendar.

Ali can be seen next in Tariq's Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, which he said made good use of the swordsman skills he learned while shooting Blade.

For more, check out our guides to upcoming Marvel movies and how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

New Marvel movie Spider-Man: Brand New Day swung into cinemas last weekend to rave reviews from audiences and critics alike, including game developer slash Twitter film reviewer Hideo Kojima, who seems to heavily relate to Peter Parker's struggles.

"A lonely hero, a lonely Spidey, a lonely Peter Parker," begins Kojima's review on Twitter. "It was fresh and entertaining. Spider-Man has, up until now, generally wrapped up in trilogies as complete sets… This film continues both the cast and the story, but it's reset, depicting the loneliness and anguish of Peter, who's been left all alone. It can be seen as the start of a new series or as a continuation of the previous one. It's a pretty clever structure."

Kojima feels as though the fourquel's title Brand New Day attributes to the movie taking a risk at a time when "sincere filmmaking is starting to feel more and more precarious." But for Kojima, the new Spidey movie "puts the 'brand' of a major franchise series – which can't afford to fail – to the test with its 'new day'." Check out the full post below.

It seems as though many others share Kojima's sentiment. The new movie currently stands at an impressive 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and an even better 98% audience score. In our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review, we call the Spidey installment "a blast, with personal stakes to match its evolved spectacle. It's the Multiverse Saga's best movie (yet)."

Brand New Day is predicted to gross just shy of $1 billion. It looks like it may achieve just that, as the movie has grossed $927 million so far worldwide after hitting US theaters on Friday, July 31, and international cinemas from July 29. In fact, Brand New Day has already beaten Avengers: Endgame in terms of Thursday night previews, and opened to the second-highest weekend ever in movie history. Endgame still holds that title, earning a whopping $1.2 billion during its first weekend on screen in 2019.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in theaters now. For more, check out our guide on how to watch the Marvel movies in order or all the Brand New Day Easter eggs and cameos.

A Spider-Man: Brand New Day designer has debunked one of its biggest villain rumors

Twitter user @WilliamD1123 – who appears to be assistant prop modeller William Osborne – responded to a fan enquiring about the devil symbols seen on tanks during filming of one action sequence.

At the time, it sparked intense debate over whether villain Mister Negative, perhaps best known to fans of Insomniac's Spider-Man Games, would rock up to face the webhead in New York.

Unfortunately for those hoping for at least a slight tease of what's to come down the line, its origins were surprisingly low-key and circumstantial.

"I can explain! The production designer requested some symbols to go on the tank, including a ‘devil’," the designer wrote on Twitter. "My colleague added the devil symbol to the tank, as well as a panther (I think)."

They cryptically added: "But that’s not the only time you see that devil symbol in the film…"

That's the only nod to Spider-Man's rogues' gallery hiding off-screen in a prop or two. As @WilliamD1123 pointed out elsewhere on Twitter, there are Easter eggs in the Empire State University lecture room, with one student plastering cartoonish stickers of Vulture, Green Goblin, and Mysterio on their laptop. The Spot – who has recently caused carnage in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – is also represented.

We did end up getting Jean Grey, so that's a fair trade. That's despite Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige being transparent about the fact that another, more obscure villain was considered before settling on Sadie Sink's mutant.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in cinemas. For more on-screen secrets, zip on over to our essential guide on Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day originally had "a very obscure character" as its villain.

Spoilers for the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending follow.

During a talk at USC, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige revealed that a "big development change" during pre-production involved the identity of the villain.

Of course, we now know that both Tramell Tillman's William Metzger and Sadie Sink's Jean Grey were antagonists to Tom Holland's Spider-Man, but that wasn't always the case.

"There was one version of the bad guy, then another version of the bad guy," Feige said. "Then a version, essentially, of this bad guy that was revealed to be a very obscure character nobody had ever heard of. It just wasn't satisfying."

Feige revealed that Tom Holland had some input – including one character Feige said couldn't be used in Brand New Day. Then, they finally landed on a specific mutant, around Peter Parker's age, that would be perfect for the story they were trying to tell.

"That's when Jean comes up," Feige said. "That is when it really came together. Then our producer, Emily Fawn, sitting around the table said: 'What about Sadie Sink?'"

We're not psychic – and may need Jean Grey's help here, ironically – so the exact details of who Spidey was meant to face in Brand New Day is currently unknown. One theory suggests telepathic villain Mindworm, while other speculation has revolved around the underutilized, anti-mutant activist Leper Queen.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in cinemas. For more, check out our breakdown of the, admittedly, pretty confusing Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene.

See what else is on the way in the MCU with our guide to upcoming Marvel movies.

Update: It's official – Spider-Man: Brand New Day had the biggest opening weekend of all time in the US, with final totals coming in at $360 million, just ahead of Avengers: Endgame's $357 million (not adjusted for inflation). That puts the final total for the weekend at a staggering $932 million worldwide. Thwip!

Spider-Man: Brand New Day has already swung into the record books. Not only has the fourth outing for Tom Holland's Peter Parker had one of the biggest box office opening weekends of all time globally, it may yet top Avengers: Endgame as the biggest opening weekend of all time domestically, once final numbers are in.

Per Box Office Mojo, the Marvel Phase 6 movie opened to a staggering $927 million globally. To put that into perspective, box office sensation The Odyssey is sitting on $911 million globally after three weekends. That total is still some way behind Avengers: Endgame's unfathomable $1.2 billion global opening weekend haul – a record that may never be beaten – but is almost $300 million ahead of the previous number two, Avengers: Infinity War, which opened to $640 million in 2018.

Even more impressive, arguably, is that Brand New Day is on the cusp of topping Avengers: Endgame's all-time opening weekend record at the US box office. Current reports have Brand New Day at $355 million for the (long) weekend, some $2.1 million short of Avengers: Endgame's $357.1 million. Brand New Day's final total is almost certain to go up once final figures are accounted for, with some already suggesting it could come in at a record-setting $359 million.

Whichever way you swing it, Brand New Day has been a roaring success, and a much-needed win for both the beleaguered Marvel Studios and distributor Sony, whose Spider-Man extended universe was quietly shelved ahead of a planned reboot earlier this year. Perhaps they should have accelerated those plans to merge the two universes.

Brand New Day has also been a big hit with audiences and critics. Our own Spider-Man: Brand New Day review calls it: "Marvel Studios' strongest standalone outing since Avengers: Endgame." The movie is currently sitting on a very respectable 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. The question now is: where does Spider-Man go from here? The Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene may offer a few clues on that front.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now. For a full deep dive, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained, and our list of 43 Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs and cameos.

Sweary, ultra-violent, and with a deeply traumatic backstory, Frank Castle has always been an R-rated Marvel character. And every time we've seen Jon Bernthal's version of the vigilante on screen, this has been reinforced as he punches his way through Hell's Kitchen in a blood-soaked rampage.

I've got to admit then that when I heard he was making the big screen jump to a Spider-Man movie, I was pretty confused. How was Punisher going to work alongside our friendly neighborhood superhero? And how much was Disney going to have to dilute the brutal character to squeeze him into a PG-13?

It seemed to be a strange mesh, and the cynic in me wondered why they were even bothering if the result would be an unrecognizable version of Frank. Of course, the Punisher and Spider-Man have shared plenty of comic book pages together, and they both call New York City home, but it was still a big surprise how well Bernthal's character works in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Familiar but different

The way that Destin Daniel Cretton uses the Punisher in Brand New Day is extremely clever. We first see Benthal's antihero zooming through New York in pursuit of a target. Peter Parker swings in and tries to reason with him. "You can't just shoot yourself out of every situation; innocent people get hurt," he shouts at him, before knocking him out of his van. Frank yells, "Mother…" before Peter webs his mouth shut.

It's a really fun introduction and one that proves that Spider-Man has no interest in curbing who the Punisher is. His speech is just as swear-filled as always – in fact, I stopped counting the number of variations of "shit" he uses by about halfway through the movie. He's still going to use firepower to react to every situation and worry about the casualties later.

Cretton keeps Frank acting this way throughout the whole movie. He's constantly negotiating with Peter on his strategy, and his impulsive approach to crimefighting actually becomes a huge plot point during the film's conclusion. Acting before thinking, he shoots towards Roosevelt Island, hitting Peter rather than Jean Grey, putting Spidey in hospital.

Another of the Punisher's key attributes in all of his on-screen appearances so far has been his tendency to head off alone. We see this throughout Brand New Day, even when Peter tries to force himself back into his orbit, sending MJ to his hideout to try and keep her safe. But just as it stays true to who Frank is, Peter brings out a side to him that we've not seen so far – and that is so enjoyable to watch.

Every scene that Spidey star Tom Holland and Bernthal share together as their superhero counterparts is filled with bickering. A long-running gag about Peter saving Frank's life on Staten Island (surely the MCU's new Budapest) finds its way into each squabble. The pair are like fractious siblings, hitting each other where it hurts as they fail to see eye-to-eye on just about anything.

The chemistry between them clearly comes from a long working relationship. Not only are Bernthal and Holland in another of the summer's big blockbusters together in The Odyssey, but they've actually known each other since 2017. They shared the screen in an Irish movie called Pilgrimage during a period where they were both auditioning for their respective Marvel characters, and even recorded each other's Marvel audition tapes. It feels like fate then that the pair are back together on screen in these roles a decade later.

A new side

Aside from the fun that Bernthal brings to the screen in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it also feels like this is the most interesting version of the character we've seen yet. At the very least, it's his best MCU appearance to date. So far, Frank has felt like a bit of an afterthought in Daredevil: Born Again, brought in to deliver some punches before he flits off into the night once again.

Even more frustrating was his standalone Disney Plus special, The Punisher: One Last Kill, which rehashed past trauma for Frank as he walked around New York City having hallucinations. No new ground was trodden, and he didn't end up anywhere new at the end of that standalone special.

By taking the character away from his usual storytelling surroundings, Brand New Day doesn't fall into these same traps. Bernthal is able to bring a lot of emotion back to Frank because he meets Peter in a similar state of trauma. Peter is alone by choice, but Frank isn't. The ghosts of his family continue to haunt him. As he tells the webslinger with tears in his eyes that if his loved ones were still breathing, he wouldn't abandon them, it changes something in Peter's mentality towards MJ and Ned. It's a beautiful scene and one that probably only Frank could have brought out in Peter.

Such emotional heft continues into the film's final act. As Frank sits on Peter's bedside, it feels like we've finally found a character that he can care deeply about – and show it. Filled with regret, it feels like part of Frank really has changed.

The Punisher isn't exactly the character we've come to know over the past decade on screen in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but he isn't far off. Fewer swear words and a bit less blood don't take away the core of who Frank Castle is. In fact, over the course of two and a half hours, Cretton brings the character to a place that's more interesting than we've seen in years and one filled with infinite possibilities of where he could go next.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out in theaters now. For more on the Marvel movie, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review and our guide to how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

Obsession star Inde Navarrette may or may not have had another meeting with X-Men director Jake Schreier, and she wants to play Mystique.

"I thought what Jake brought to Thunderbolts was what I used to love about Marvel," Navarrette told Variety. "It was character-driven, and the whole time I just couldn’t stop yapping about how much I appreciated what he did with Marvel."

When asked what character she'd like to play, Navarrette replied: "I mean, Mystique has always been super cool."

Navarrette continues to be in high demand after Obsession earned over $400 million at the global box office against a budget of just $750,000. Directed by YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Curry Barker, the indie horror follows a dude who, instead of just being normal and chill, decides to magically enchant a woman into being in love with him, and it goes just about as well as you might think.

The film's viral marketing campaign showcased some of Navarrette's acting chops as Nikki, said woman who gets unfortunately magically enchanted... though you'll just have to watch the entire film (if you haven't already) to get the full experience.

"I really want to prove that Obsession wasn't just lightning in a bottle," Navarrette previously told Nylon. "This is something that I really love and want to continue doing, but of course that’s going to take time. I want people to take that time to trust that I have that capability."

Schreier's X-Men movie just found its second mutant in Samara Weaving, casting her as the villainous Emma Frost. You'll just have to guess who the first one is...

Obsession is streaming now on Peacock. Marvel's untitled X-Men movie is set to arrive sometime in 2028. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows on the way, as well as everything you need to know about Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Peter Parker is not having a good time. Five years ago, the No Way Home ending erased him from the memories of his loved ones, leaving him completely isolated. Fast forward to Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Spidey is still all on his lonesome, burned out, and operating from a run-down apartment.

It's so bad, in fact, that Peter's own body betrays him: his arachnid DNA begins to overwhelm him, transforming his powers in ways he can't control. His helpful AI assistant EV warns him that his illness is a consequence of unresolved trauma, but still Peter doesn't stop. Instead, he decides to build a device that will restrict his powers.

Through it all, though, he makes attempts to reconnect to his best pal Ned and his once-girlfriend MJ, though they have no idea who he is. It's obvious that having his support system around again would be a huge help, but Doctor Strange's spell still holds – and that's actually a very good thing for the MCU. Spoilers follow for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Memory lane

Going into Brand New Day, I expected the spell to be reversed at some point in the film. Surely Peter wouldn't have to keep going on alone? Except, even after MJ finds the letter Peter wrote about their shared past, she doesn't get her memories of her onetime love back. She even tells Peter that she doesn't know him or love him, in an especially brutal moment for the webslinger. It's not until the very final moments of the film that Ned possibly seems to remember Peter, though there's a tiny bit of doubt: muscle memory might have carried him through the handshake, and MJ already told him Spider-Man's real name is Peter.

But the film is so much stronger for allowing Peter to remain forgotten. For one thing, it hugely strengthens Peter's character arc. Instead of a quick fix to his isolation, he has to make the choice to reach out to others. If the spell were reversed and his friends magically remembered him, Peter wouldn't have to learn how important it is to have someone to lean on.

Plus, it allows for the film to have a lot of fun with Peter's secret identity. Now that the world has forgotten him, Peter Parker can go back to being anonymous, which means he keeps his mask on in the bathhouse with Yelena Belova, and he refuses to take it off in front of MJ and the Punisher. It's good old-fashioned superhero hijinks, and something I'd been missing after Mysterio exposed Peter's identity back in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Most importantly, though, it introduces something the MCU has been sorely lacking: real consequences.

Nothing lasts forever

It's difficult to get emotionally invested in the MCU when nothing seems to last. Loki died heroically in Avengers: Infinity War, then (an alternate version of him) returned in his own solo show. Vision also died tragically in Infinity War and reappeared as a figment of Wanda's fake reality in WandaVision – and is now returning again in VisionQuest, since White Vision escaped with the synthezoid's memories. Steve Rogers laid down his shield and went back in time to live out the life he'd missed out on, but is coming back for Avengers: Doomsday. And, most egregiously of all, Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man made a huge sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame… and now Downey Jr. is returning to the MCU as Doctor Doom. Does nothing matter anymore? When anything can be reversed, the stakes are non-existent.

In contrast, Peter struggles for the entire movie with the reality of Doctor Strange's spell. Sacrifice finally means something, and the stakes are finally real. It makes the ending of No Way Home even stronger, too: Peter really was willing to give up everything to save everyone, as any good superhero should be.

It would be a shame if Ned apparently remembering his old best friend also stretches to MJ – her and Peter's situation echoes Peter Quill and Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy 3, another rare example of consequences actually sticking. Gamora doesn't magically remember Quill or decide to rekindle their relationship (even though, again, Gamora was killed off in Infinity War and returns anyway), and the same goes for MJ and Peter Parker.

Gamora admitting "I bet we were fun" to Quill was one of that film's most moving moments, just as MJ telling Peter she doesn't love him was one of Brand New Day's most crushing. Having the courage to leave these unhappy plot twists without an easy solution only deepens both films' emotional weight and reinforces that the choices these heroes make actually matter. And, it opens the door for Peter and MJ to rediscover their love organically, as we see them connecting and growing closer when Spidey hides MJ on Punisher's boat.

Future projects may yet reverse Doctor Strange's spell, but, for now, it's seriously refreshing to see an MCU project that is unafraid to explore lasting consequences – even if it does make Peter Parker's life harder.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out in theaters now. For more, read our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review and check out our guide on how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

Samara Weaving has officially been cast as Emma Frost in the first standalone MCU X-Men movie... and this is perfect, if I do say so myself.

According to Deadline, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and director Jake Schreier met with "a number of candidates" and "landed on Weaving earlier this week." Neither Marvel nor Weaving has commented just yet.

Emma Frost has similar powers to those of Jean Grey by way of telepathy and mind control in addition to superhuman strength. Frost was initially introduced as a mutant supervillain before eventually joining and teaming up with the X-Men. Because the X-Men haven't even been formed yet in the MCU (and we can infer that the standalone X-Men movie will focus on the formation of the team as the mutants enroll at the Charles Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters), it's likely that Emma will be introduced as a villain rather than jumping ahead and skipping over a few comic book arcs.

Weaving is perhaps best known for starring in Ready or Not as the most badass final girl in a blood-soaked wedding dress, and recently kicked butt in Over Your Dead Body and Carolina Caroline. A horror-action star being cast as Emma Frost is a boss move on Marvel's part. She's also the second X-Men member to be cast in the MCU... but we'll let you figure out who that might be.

X-Men is eyeing a tentative 2028 release date. You can keep up to date with everything the MCU has in store with our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows.

It should come as no surprise that Spider-Man: Brand New Day is already making waves at the box office – though the actual figure might be more of a shock.

According to Variety, the Marvel Phase 6 film has smashed Avengers: Endgame's preview record with a massive $72 million total across Wednesday and Thursday's preview screenings. Endgame's record, in comparison, was $60 million.

Brand New Day now looks set for a truly massive, record-breaking opening weekend at the box office. We'll just have to wait and see what the final figures look like, but don't be surprised if they're impressive.

Per Variety, the film is looking to make somewhere between $260 million and $280 million over its opening weekend. That would make it the second biggest opening ever, behind Endgame but ahead of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Other estimates peg the film at an over $300 million opening, while Sony estimates between $190 and $195 million. As for international figures, estimates are between $275 million and $300 million.

Brand New Day picks up in the aftermath of No Way Home, with an isolated Peter Parker contending with a foe no one can see and struggling with a mysterious illness that amplifies his powers.

The film is a hit with fans and critics alike so far, and our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review awards the film four stars and reads: "Taking Spidey back to web-slinging basics, Tom Holland’s fourth solo outing as Spider-Man is a blast, with personal stakes to match its evolved spectacle. It's the Multiverse Saga's best movie… at least until Doomsday."

Brand New Day is in theaters now. For more, check out our guide on how to watch the Marvel movies in order or all the Brand New Day Easter eggs and cameos.

It's not just movie critics and general audiences who love it: Comic book legends have united in their praise over Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

J. Michael Straczynski, whose six-year run on The Amazing Spider-Man is regarded as one of the 21st Century's best takes on the wallcrawler, wrote on Twitter, "To be clear, I've enjoyed all the Spider-Man movies. But for my money, this latest iteration feels most authentically Peter, and Spider-Man."

Straczynski felt that the strengths of the fourth Spider-Man MCU movie lay in its heart and ability to provoke emotion, as well as not falling into the MacGuffin-filled trap of other superhero entries.

"So many comic movies have fallen into MacGuffin plots, looking for the code, the stone, the box, the sword... this one is all about what William Faulkner called 'the human heart in conflict with itself,'" Straczynski said. "It's a very human story, emotional without being slow or dull or self-indulgent. It feels like stepping into a really good Spidey comic. Well done to all concerned (and even those unconcerned)."

Frank Miller, perhaps best known for his work on seminal comic The Dark Knight Returns, was also a fan. He wrote, "The most [Steve] Ditko movie yet and with my Hand in it for all to celebrate. This fan’s dream come true. Tom Holland is my forever Spider-Man as romantic as he is heroic. Congratulations to [director Destin Daniel Cretton] and the whole team."

Brian Michael Bendis, over on Bluesky, said, "It's a blast" and later felt honored to be "part of the Spidey legacy."

It could have ended very differently, however. Star Tom Holland revealed there was one cut he "hated" – despite test screenings raving over it.

"It totally didn’t work," Holland told Quotable. "And it's what the people were asking for, but it wasn't quite what we wanted as the creatives. But they learned lessons from that experience. So, a movie can change in a thousand different ways in the edit room."

A lesson, then: going all-in on your creative path can sometimes be a good thing. It's little wonder that Brand New Day is on course to be one of Marvel's biggest box office successes on opening weekend.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in cinemas. For more, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review and our breakdown of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending.

Robert Downey Jr. showed up to the Marvel panel at San Diego Comic-Con last weekend in a Doctor Doom-style green get-up. But one Marvel fan has found that the Avengers: Doomsday star's green get-up wasn't just nodding to the villain. It actually contains a secret message.

Downey's suit jacket, which you can see below, has an ancient language known as Runes stitched on. Impressively, one Reddit user has deciphered the message, using language found at the Doctor Doom coffee pop-up in London last month to translate. "It’s a phonetic cipher of English," said the fan. "By cross-referencing the Dom Latveria Coffee product and both Elder Futhark and Anglo-Saxon runic alphabets, I’ve created a somewhat shoddy but still very accurate version of the Latverian Rune Alphabet. "

So what does it say? According to the Reddit user, Downey's right pocket spells "Revenge," and his left pocket spells "Justice." Now, those are just words, but other parts of the suit seem to spell out sentences. His lapel reads "There is no promise of tomorrow," his right cuff spells out "To the victor," and the fan guesses that his left cuff says "Go the spoils."

So, the full message reads, "Revenge. Justice. There is no promise of tomorrow. To the victor…Go the spoils." Now, that sounds like a warning to us. Doom wants his revenge, and whoever comes out on top will win it all. However, Doom's first name is Victor, which means he has confidence that he will be able to succeed on his quest for justice.

This sheds a little more light on Doom's motives. Thanks to the new Avengers: Doomsday poster, we know that family or the loss of it could be what is driving the villain to attack Earth 616. Fans theorize that Doom may have lost his family and universe due to an incursion possibly created by Steve Rogers traveling to the past at the end of Avengers: Endgame. This may be the reason why Chris Evans' Rogers returns to the main timeline, as we saw in the Doomsday trailer.

Doomsday's stacked cast list also includes Chris Hemsworth's Thor, the Thunderbolts, the Fox-era X-Men, the new Fantastic Four, the Wakandans, and so many more

Avengers: Doomsday arrives this December 18. For more on Marvel Phase 6, check out our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows.

Marvel casting director Sarah Finn has explained why they chose David Jonsson and Ryan Gosling to fill two of the MCU's most exciting roles.

"[David] has a lot of talent and a whole lot of heart," Sarah Finn told Variety, when asked about casting Jonsson as the new Black Panther. "Obviously, these are very big shoes to fill. He is the grown version of [T'Challa's son], and our heir apparent. We needed somebody not only with the talent, but with a certain presence and a certain spirit."

Both Jonsson and Gosling took the stage during Marvel's Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con following their big standalone movie announcements. Both Black Panther 3 and Ghost Rider are due out in 2028.

"Have there been occasions in the past where we've pursued Ryan for a role?" Finn asked rhetorically. "Although Ryan is very public about saying he wanted to play [Ghost Rider], so there wasn't a lot of heavy lifting. The reaction was beautiful to witness."

Jonsson is best known for his starring roles in Alien: Romulus and The Long Walk, with the former earning him the BAFTA Award for Rising Star. Gosling recently hit big at the box office with Project Hail Mary, which saw him playing a secretly brilliant schoolteacher who gets sent into space to save the world.

For more, check out our guide to everything announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2026. We've also rounded up all of the upcoming Marvel movies and shows on the way in 2026 and beyond.

Marvel star Tom Holland says Sony wanted to merge its not-so-spectacular Spider-Man universe with the MCU's Spider-Man – but there were never any internal battles about his on-screen appearances.

"[Sony CEO Tom Rothman] is a really smart guy. He was building this universe and they had this plan to merge the worlds at some point," Holland recalled on Happy Sad Confused. "They just never found the right time to do so."

Despite persistent rumors of Holland's Spidey appearing in a Tom Hardy Venom movie (and a bizarre symbiote tease in the No Way Home post-credits scene), there was no politicking about which cinematic universe the wallcrawler would appear in next.

"I think it was on the cards. There were never any battles of 'We want you to be in this movie and I don't want to,'" Holland said. "That never happened."

Holland added, "Like lots of things in the creative world, it just never came to fruition. We were feeling great confidence in my franchise with [director Jon Watts] and the Marvel guys in the MCU. Tom and the guys at Sony just wanted us to continue on our path."

Sony's Spider-Man Universe – previously anchored with the truly terrible Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters (SPUMC) moniker – consisted of multiple spin-offs featuring Spider-Man-adjacent characters.

That included a trilogy of Venom movies, a Kraven the Hunter spin-off, Morbius, and Madame Web, the Dakota Johnson-starring film that was roundly panned upon release.

Spider-Man's MCU series, meanwhile, has fared much better. The franchise, consisting of four movies, is about to gross a combined $4 billion at the box office thanks to an expected historic opening weekend for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. It seems, then, that the likes of Morbius are in the rear-view mirror – at least where Tom Holland's webhead is concerned.

For more, check out our verdict on Spidey's latest with the Spider-Man: Brand New Day review.

Then dive into spoiler territory with our breakdown of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending and Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene.

Tom Holland, king of spoilers, says he has no idea what Avengers: Secret Wars is going to be about, and he also doesn't even know how they would make the iconic black symbiote suit work in the first place.

"I love the black suit in Toby's movie. I think that's really cool," Holland told Josh Horowitz. "I think if we ever got to the black suit in Spider-Man, I don't know how we would tackle that challenge because they did it so well in the game, right? I don't know how you make a suit that's similar to the one in the game without having a CG component."

When pointed out that some fans are expecting to see the black symbiote suit in Avengers: Secret Wars, Holland put his hands up in the air and hilariously refused to make eye contact with Horowitz.

"I have no idea what Secret Wars is about," Holland said. "And I think that that is by design because Marvel knows I'm going on this press tour and that is their biggest asset, and I think it's really important that no one ruins it. So I think [it's] by design. I went on holiday with Joe Russo not a month ago and nothing. I don't know nothing."

Well, if Holland won't tell you what Avengers: Secret Wars is (probably) going to be about, we will. The comic book arc is told over the course of 12 issues and centers on a villain called The Beyonder, who sends the Avengers to a planet known as Battleworld and traps them in a seemingly eternal battle with other villains.

One of those villains is Doctor Doom, who is being introduced in Avengers: Doomsday. Secret Wars is also the arc where an alien symbiote comes to Earth, attempts to attach itself to Peter Parker, but eventually settles on Eddie Brock. The Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene does hold a clue, in my opinion, anyway.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in UK theaters now. Avengers: Doomsday arrives on December 18. Avengers: Secret Wars is set to bow on December 17, 2027. For more, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day may only just be hitting our screens, but Peter Parker star Tom Holland has said there is already a plan for his exit in the role. The actor has played the webslinger across four Spider-Man movies and several MCU outings so far.

While there has been no confirmation that he's going to stop any time soon, Holland says they have been working out a "plan" about how it might happen.

"Oh yeah, there's a whole plan that we have been working on for I would say since we finished Spider-Man: No Way Home," he explained when asked about the possibility on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. "It's laid out, it's gonna change for sure but I have a really clear vision for the passing on of the baton and I think it's really exciting. I know it's really exciting when we have these meetings and chat about it but that is the thing that I want to do most in this character."

Recently, producer Amy Pascal shared her hopes that Brand New Day would kick off a new trilogy for Spider-Man. "I never want to be so presumptuous as to say anything is going to be a trilogy or more than one. That would be my dream, of course, but you never know," she added. "Because the truth is that the rule that we set for ourselves is to take it one movie at a time. It's important to us that you don't have to see one movie to see the other movie."

However, nothing has been confirmed yet about where Spider-Man will appear next. We do expect he'll appear in Avengers: Secret Wars, but Marvel hasn't officially announced this yet.

Holland has been clear that he wants to keep playing Peter Parker as long as he's able to. "I will do it for as long as they’ll have me. So if this movie does good, I guess we'll see," he told The Hollywood Reporter recently.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day does also share a few clues about what is next for the character in the MCU. If you've seen the film, have a read of our Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained and our Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene breakdown for more on that.