Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
This is a spoiler-free review of ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’
Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is all alone in a world where nobody remembers the face behind the Spider-Man mask, even though the friendly neighborhood hero remains the city’s beloved masked vigilante. That’s because Spider-Man: No Way Home ended with Peter asking Doctor Strange to cast a memory-erasing spell, wiping himself from everyone’s memories after his identity as Spider-Man was revealed. So, even girlfriend MJ and best-friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) don’t recognize him anymore.
If you’re a Spider-Man fan but have been on the fence about this 2026 film because of the MCU fatigue many viewers have been experiencing, trust director Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi, American Born Chinese). He brilliantly balances all the elements that have made Spidey an enduring pop-culture favorite, while Tom Holland continues to perform the greatest magic trick in the MCU with his youthful energy: still looking like a college sophomore.
There’s plenty of web-swinging through towering skyscrapers, generous doses of humor, an intimidatingly manipulative new villain, the usual fun cameos, and, for a change, a genuinely emotional core about a young man grappling with heartbreak and isolation, all while his superpowers begin to spiral out of control. And if you’ve seen the trailer, this doesn’t count as a spoiler: Peter Parker heads to Professor Bruce Banner’s class in search of answers about altering DNA, hoping it will help him regain control over his webs.
‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ entertainingly begins with a montage of Spidey fighting various super-villains and criminals, bringing the crime rate in New York City to a new low. For four years, he quietly overworks himself, keeping an eye on MJ and Ned Leeds through social media updates and stories, who BTW are having a pretty great time at college. It’s a quietly tragicomic touch: life moves on for them, while their oldest friend is left to carry his crime-fighting burden alone.
Sadie Sink of Stranger Things fame makes her MCU debut, and if you don’t already know which character she’s playing, we’ll keep that under wraps so you can enjoy discovering her identity for yourself while watching Spider-Man: Brand New Day. I’ll only say that she’s the kind of character who’s likely to divide some fans, and I thought she was an excellent choice.
Jon Bernthal also makes his Spider-Man debut in ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ as the Punisher, and he slips into the story so effortlessly that it almost feels as though he’d been part of Tom Holland’s previous films all along. He shares terrific on-screen chemistry with Spider-Man, and it’s exactly the kind of meaningful supporting role I wish Jason Momoa had been given in Supergirl.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day has terrific visual effects, and Peter Parker swinging between New York’s skyscrapers is often close to jaw-dropping. Now that I think about it, I don’t even have much to say about the background score, but that’s actually a compliment. I was too busy enjoying the story to pay much attention to it. The action, banter, emotional beats, and superhero spectacle constantly keep your eyes glued to Spider-Man.
There were times when the Spider-Man: No Way Home felt more of a Doctor Strange film, but Spider-Man: Brand New Day belongs entirely to Peter Parker and his primary antagonist. For almost the first hour, the filmmakers keep viewers guessing about the identity of the new villain, maintaining a strong sense of intrigue, before revealing just enough of their backstory to make them feel like a real person rather than a generic comic-book baddie.
Meanwhile, every supporting character gets just enough screen time to matter without ever stealing Spidey’s thunder. For well over two hours, there wasn’t a single moment where my mind wandered somewhere else. For me, this is the most entertaining film of 2026 so far.
Rating: 9 stars on 10. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is currently playing in theaters.
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