Published Mar 19, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT
Zoë Miskelly is an editor and second in command for Screen Rant's Movies team, having covered the entertainment industry for almost 10 years now. Zoë's love of superheroes and all things Marvel & DC started out in childhood, and has blossomed into a career getting to talk about some of the biggest and best movies and shows of all time, having previously focused on comics while working at WhatCulture.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day's trailer has already revealed that versions of two storylines that fans had been convinced wouldn't or couldn't appear in the MCU for Tom Holland's hero are on the way for the Marvel film. The MCU's next upcoming movie is sure to be one of the biggest releases of the year, as audiences have eagerly anticipated the return of the franchise's beloved iteration of Spider-Man for years.
With the likes of the Punisher and the Hulk also appearing in Spider-Man: Brand New Day's cast, it's clear Peter Parker's next adventure is about to take some exciting turns throughout its runtime. However, some of the most fascinating aspects of Brand New Day are a result of it choosing to adapt two story concepts that previously seemed unlikely at best for the MCU timeline to take on.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day's Trailer Confirms Two Storylines Fans Joked About For The MCU Are On The Horizon
Spider-Man: Brand New Day's trailer teases a lot of major plot points for the beloved web-swinging hero, but perhaps the most surprising are the two nods to storylines that directly align with comic plot points fans have previously joked about happening in the MCU because they seemed so unlikely to happen.
The first and most pressing is that Peter appears to be experiencing some further mutations from the spider bite that altered his genetic makeup back before we even saw him on-screen in the MCU. Brand New Day's trailer makes it clear Parker is becoming more spider-like, with the hero now having organic webbing at his disposal - that he finds himself cocooned in at one stage - and the teaser suggesting his transformation may not stop there.
Interestingly, this comes very close to the idea of Peter transforming into Man-Spider - a more monstrous form, that eventually sees the "human" Peter be reborn from it - in some capacity during his MCU movie time, much as he did in the comics and the 90s Spider-Man show, wherein it's depicted as the "next stage" of Peter's mutation. The Brand New Day trailer even directly teases this by mentioning that spiders have three life cycles, suggesting Peter's developing mutation is him moving into the "next cycle" of his life.
In a perhaps even more surreal sense to some degree, Brand New Day also ties into the slew of semi-joking theories that the MCU would introduce Paul Rabin - a character who gained notoriety for becoming MJ's long-term partner in more recent comics in order to put a wedge between her and Parker.
The Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer notably shows MJ with her face close to a man who moves her hair behind her ear as a sad Peter looks on, suggesting a similar narrative may be about to take place in the film. Indeed, this kind of storyline would make particular sense given MJ and Ned's memories of Peter appear to still be wiped, meaning MJ has seemingly no idea about her prior relationship with Spider-Man.
Why The Two Storylines Are Perfect For This Chapter Of Spider-Man's MCU Story
While it might seem surreal that two stories that were considered staggeringly unlikely to appear in Spider-Man's MCU adventures by many have been set loose into the franchise in some format or another at the same time, both of these plot lines make a lot of sense for Spider-Man: Brand New Day to adapt, especially given the current point in Peter's life we find ourselves at.
With Spider-Man: No Way Home underlining that Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man has organic web-shooters, it makes particular in-universe sense for Holland's hero to also go through this development, particularly if it allows the narrative an excuse to develop Peter's powers further, show his metaphorical growth alongside his literal development as a metahuman, and provide an excuse for the Hulk to appear in the story.
Similarly, giving MJ another prospective love interest, even if this ends up being only in passing, works well when Peter is having to face the long-term implications of choosing whether to tell MJ and Ned about their lost memories, as it becomes clearer than ever that he will have to watch them live on without him if he decides against doing so.
Combined together, these plotlines should work effectively to help further the overall theme of this being a new start for Spider-Man - albeit one where he has to confront the ever-present impact of his past at the same time. Hopefully, all the various story strands of Spider-Man: Brand New Day should combine into one suitably fascinating and fittingly interconnected web for the MCU hero, and kick off his next chapter with a strong start.
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