'Spiderman: Brand New Day' Did What No MCU Movie After 'Avengers: Endgame' Had the Guts To Do

Published Aug 22, 2026, 7:47 AM EDT

The Lost Ramifications of The Blip

While Thanos' snap and consequent 50% off sale was a very bold move and one of the memorable parts of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, the MCU never delved into the pay dirt of drama and storylines that could've come from exploring the five-year absence of all of those characters, or their subsequent return (Hawkeye's brief stint as a murderer of criminals could've been an awesome Punisher-esque movie on its own). Besides that, the closest we got was Spiderman: Far From Home using it for comedic purposes, and The Falcon & the Winter Soldier creating The Flag Smashers, a terrorist cell that thought things were better off after the Blip.

Marvel doesn't like sticking to tough decisions (as we've learned a lot recently), and they're fond of pressing Ctrl-Z, like Tony Stark destroying his suits in Iron Man 3, any type of consistency with the portrayal of The Hulk, or Thor being a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy (or having one eye, being overweight, or not needing a weapon). It's surprising considering the very first movie in the franchise made the bold move of having Tony Stark reveal his identity to the world, which led to the sequel leaning into the repercussions of that decision. That's why it's all so welcome that in their most recent outing, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Marvel did the unthinkable: they didn't cop out.

Since everyone saw Spider-Man: No Way Home, you know it ended with the existence of Peter Parker (Tom Holland) being wiped from the world's collective memory, and him living on his own, separated from MJ (Zendaya) and his best friend, Ned (Jacob Batalon). While not the civilization-shattering consequences of the end of Infinity War, that's a pretty severe weight to drop on a single person, much less a teenager. They could've just gone the easy route and had Brand New Day immediately undo that decision to get back to the status quo and keep two of the more likable side characters in the MCU movies in the loop. But they didn't.

Peter Parker Is Still Struggling After 'No Way Home'

Unlike previous MCU sequels, Brand New Day doesn't take place immediately after No Way Home, and Peter and his friends haven't simply graduated from being high schoolers into college life. There's a four-year gap between movies, and that's four years of Peter not only having to live in a world without his best friend and the girl he loves, but having to watch them be happy without any knowledge of his existence. This isn't something that it brushes under the rug; it's one of the film's primary sources of drama, on top of the greater threat that Spider-Man is facing.

It also feeds into Spider-Man's connection with the villain. In this case, this doesn't go the way of earlier Spider-Man films, where there was a literal direct personal connection to Peter Parker; instead, there is a thematic connection with his feelings of isolation, and the idea that people like them are forced to be alone. Even the villain's telepathic abilities are never used as a carrot to dangle in front of Peter as a possibility to somehow get his friends back. There's no easy way to correct the decision that Peter made, save for one particularly cruel fake-out that would have you believe otherwise, and a pretty good tease for the sequel.

This isn't exactly groundbreaking, since a sequel should build off the events of a previous outing for the lead characters. But considering the MCU's previously mentioned proclivity to undo decisions made by previous films, or let cameos and teased plot lines go unexplored, it's nice that one of the best entries in their current string of films stuck to canon and didn't cop out in service of sticking to what works. In doing so, it gave the story more weight and added layers to the dynamic with MJ and Ned. Most importantly, it led to some really great character development for Peter, without losing what makes him fun and likable.