With Spider-Man: Brand New Day taking Tom Holland’s Peter Parker down a darker, more isolated, and physically taxing route, the future of the web-slinger has never felt more open—or more dangerous. Moving past the multiversal mishaps of No Way Home and swinging straight into the grittier reality of a lonely, full-time New York City protector, the franchise is potentially position itself to redefine what a modern Spider-Man story can look like.
In a recent issue of SFX Magazine, producer Amy Pascal teased the boundary-pushing direction for the brand:
“You don’t want to just keep exploiting the same character, I think that would make it unspecial for the world. So there are other things in the Spider-Man universe that I think are really fun for us to explore, because the comics were so varied and so creative. I think Peter Parker should exist in live action, and I love what we’re doing with Miles in the animated movies. We just have to be really careful that we’re being smart about all this.”
With this in mind, we’re looking ahead at the directions Marvel and Sony should pivot toward for this next chapter—and exactly what they must avoid.
DO: Bring Onboard Miles Morales
Tom Holland clearly loves playing Peter Parker, but he has also openly expressed an interest in eventually stepping away from the role. While the MCU could simply recast the character somewhere down the line post-Secret Wars, it’s highly unlikely given that Brand New Day is explicitly kicking off a brand-new trilogy of films.
Instead, the franchise should transition Peter from a young, inexperienced hero into a seasoned mentor, effectively filling the foundational role Iron Man once held for him.
To bridge the gap, the MCU could link the spider that bites Miles directly to the one that bit Peter all those years ago. Because Oscorp doesn’t exist in the Earth-616 universe, a different corporate entity or research team must have been responsible for engineering the arachnid that gave Peter his powers. By crafting a coming-of-age story where Peter uncovers his own origins while guiding Miles through the same chaotic transition he faced alone, Marvel can pass the baton to a hero backed by an enormous fanbase, all while keeping an experienced Peter Parker on the board.
DON’T: Make Spin-off Movies on Villains Without Spider-Man
Sony has an incredibly mixed track record when it comes to plucking classic Spider-Man rogues from the source material and turning them into obscure anti-heroes. The latest attempts crashed out hard at the box office, heavily criticized for butchering the lore and failing to find a reason to exist beyond keeping the rights. The Morbius film even went so far as to drag Earth-616 Vulture into its own universe, forcing a bizarre character U-turn just to blame Spider-Man for it.
While Venom managed to keep its head above water commercially, it still carried plenty of issues. Hopefully, Sony has completely ditched the idea of solo villain films by now. Thanks to the narrative time jump between No Way Home and Brand New Day, there is plenty of room to establish that Peter has been consistently clearing the streets of villains the fan base would be familiar with. This allows a future film to dive straight into a Sinister Six battle film without needing to waste six individual movies setting up the roster to use.
DO: Allow His Wider Supporting Cast to Enter the Scene
The previous trilogy leaned heavily on the tight-knit dynamic between Peter, MJ, and Ned. However, Peter is no longer a high school kid—he is a grown adult navigating a much harsher world, and his social circle should expand accordingly. It’s time for Sony to dip its toes into the incredibly colorful cast of characters waiting in the wings.
Introduce street-level rogues and allies like Black Cat, or bring in an Earth-616 version of Gwen Stacy (while strictly keeping her grounded, rather than rushing into Spider-Gwen). Even if the narrative introduces the Osborns, they should be framed as ordinary citizens or localized threats rather than a massive, faceless corporation. Circling right back to MJ and Ned would only rehash relationships that have already run their course. Given that Peter made them forget his existence to protect them, it would be far more rewarding to see him actively build a new life with new faces before bringing back MJ and Ned.
DON’T: Force Him to Face Another World-Ending Threat!
The absolute biggest trap Marvel and Sony could fall into is immediately dragging Peter back into multiversal chaos or cosmic, world-ending stakes. After trading blows with Thanos in deep space and accidentally fracturing the multiverse, the character desperately needs room to breathe.
Spider-Man thrives when the stakes are deeply personal, localized, and intimate. If he is thrust into fighting an alien armada or a timeline-destroying threat in his next outing, the emotional weight of his current isolation and physical struggle will be completely erased. The creative teams must resist the urge to scale up visually and instead focus on scaling up emotionally, keeping the battlefield firmly rooted on the streets and rooftops of New York City.
DO: Use Avengers: Secret Wars to Introduce the Symbiote Suit Saga
The MCU has yet to formally meet the Symbiote’s, despite the hint that a piece of Tom Hardy’s symbiote was left behind at the bar, the final Venom film reconned this for ‘reasons’ so where can it be slotted in? The absolute best place to trigger these events is during the chaotic events of the upcoming Avengers: Secret Wars. This wouldn’t just be a neat narrative nod; it would directly mirror the iconic 1984 comic book Secret Wars where Peter Parker first discovered the alien costume.
By utilizing a massive cosmic event as the spark for Peter to bond with the symbiote, the new trilogy could give us the timed descent into the madness the symbiote creates. The symbiote suit is the perfect drive for the darker, more isolated tone of this next saga. By combining it with the years he spent alone, the chaos of whatever Doomsday and Secret Wars brings and to then come back to the new universe with this unknown entity, it could bring an incredible turn of events of Peter to overcome.
Instead of rushing through the black suit arc in a single movie, introducing it at the tail-end of Secret Wars allows the franchise to let the infection simmer. We can watch a physically taxed, emotionally fragile Peter slowly succumb to its influence across an entire film before he finally rejects it—setting up a terrifyingly earned, MCU-native Venom for the future.
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, Spider-Man: Brand New Day was written by Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers. The film stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Trammel Tillman, Micheal Mando and Mark Ruffalo.
Sony Pictures presents Spider-Man: Brand New Day in UK and Irish cinemas from July 29, 2026.
