Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) Review

As Auntie to many small children, I’ve web-slung, dodged explosions, fought for justice, rescued hostages, and saved the world by the skin of my teeth more times than I can remember.

And after countless assigned superhero missions, it was time for the next one: catching Spider-Man: Brand New Day in the cinemas as soon as possible after it got released.

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, and released in cinemas on 31st July 2026, Brand New Day picks up in the aftermath of No Way Home (2021), where Doctor Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) memory spell means the entire world has forgotten Peter Parker (Tom Holland) ever existed. That includes MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon), his two best friends, and it means Peter is left fighting crime full-time, all on his tod, with nobody around him who remembers who he used to be.

And when a new, unseen threat starts targeting the city (and the people he loves), that isolation starts to catch up with him, both physically and in the way his powers begin to change into something he’s not quite sure he can control.

Please note: Beyond this section, there are some spoilers for the film, so if you haven’t seen it yet, please save the review and come back to it after you have!

First off, I can admit that I don’t know the Marvel movies and their lore inside out (check out Adam Zsolnai for a guy fully in the know!), so my analysis isn’t necessarily going to be rooted in the heart of how it sits within the MCU, as I don’t know enough to do that justice. My love and appreciation of them is simply from a fun and entertainment value, and I like to get lost in their worlds for a little while.

But what I do know for sure is that Spider-Man has always been my favourite superhero of them all, and, beyond the Marvel universe (and the living room of the tiny humans in my life), the character has had some serious influence on pop culture moments over the years too. Seth (Adam Brody) and Summer (Rachel Bilson)’s Spider-Man mask upside down kiss in The OC springs to mind, as does the super catchy Spider-Pig tune in The Simpsons Movie (2007).

The character of Spider-Man himself has been played by multiple people over the years, and I have to say that I really love Tom Holland as Spidey; he’s got that sort of boyish charm that works well.

In Brand New Day, he’s got a lot of emotions to portray, and one of those emotions is good old fashioned heartbreak. MJ no longer remembers who Peter is, and their relationship together. And actually, in fact, if you remove the superhero elements, a lot of this film could be said to fit a typical heartbreak rom com plot. It kind of is even quite reminiscent of The Vow (2012), where, from your perspective, you see the person you love. From theirs, you are a stranger.

But, like I said in my The Odyssey review, everything tends to be a love story once you dissect all the pieces. Peter is the way he is in this film because he has all this love for MJ (and Ned) that no longer has anywhere to go. It turns into loneliness, which turns into recklessness, which turns into a continuous struggle.

Earlier, I mentioned the kiss on The OC, which was, of course, a play on the famous upside-down kiss between Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst from Spider-Man (2002) that was hugely rom-com esq largely in that they kissed in the rain. And, in Brand New Day, there’s another kiss that may just make its mark on pop culture.

When MJ and Peter are up on the rooftop, and, just like Peter did, for one second you let yourself have it, you let yourself believe they’ve found their way back to each other. Then it dawned on him that it wasn’t really her kissing him, and wow it broke me. It was awful. That scene would have made it onto my heartbreaking love film moments list if I’d watched this movie a few weeks earlier!

And later, when MJ found the letter Peter had written and so he finally admitted:

You mean everything to me, and I’ve been trying to live my life without you, but, I can’t. I love you.

Oh boy, oh boy. I couldn’t deal.

Then it got worse because of MJ responding with a totally understandable, but still pretty brutal, I don’t love you. Holy hell, what a dagger to the heart that was.

Talk about constantly being emotionally thrown from pillar to post. Just like any good rom com, Brand New Day nailed it here.

If we think about the film as a whole and move onto the villain of the piece: Jean Grey (Sadie Sink), that idea of everything being a love story is true here in more ways than one too.

Jean was such an interesting take on a baddie, especially for someone who doesn’t really know much about the X-Men character. Usually, with this kind of film, you go in braced for a global catastrophe, something that threatens to wipe out the population if the hero doesn’t get there in time. Yet, arguably, Jean’s threat isn’t really that. It’s more centred because she’s not coming for the world; she’s coming for very specific people, for very specific reasons.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that it wasn’t a “big, scary superhero villain”, it kinda felt more like a TV villain, I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone. The motives are like something what you’d see on an episode of CSI or Criminal Minds: bringing down the people responsible for the death of someone you love.

But that’s what I mean about everything being a love story. Jean isn’t trying to take over the world because she wants power or because she thinks humanity needs saving. She’s grieving, and she wants revenge/justice for someone she loves. Love can be a very powerful thing, just like we saw all saw in Obsession (2026)…

And we also have to think about whether Jean is who Peter could have become if he didn’t essentially, for the want of a better phrase, sort himself out? Was she a bit of a mirror; a warning? Maybe.

Peter first sitting in his spot, then him sitting in his aunt’s spot with Jean in Peter’s, in those sort of flashback/alternate universe scenes, suggests so. They are interchangeable: Jean can be like Peter if she wants to change, and Peter may end up like Jean if he doesn’t change.

You are a really special person. And I would hope that that will make you feel really great about yourself, but I know sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes you'll be really lonely. And sometimes, because you're special, people can do dark and monstrous things to you. But this is what I want you to know: You're beautiful, and the people who love you, they love you not because you're special, we love you because you're you. Remember that even when it feels like you're totally alone. That's your deepest responsibility. Never forget that, no matter how powerful you become.

As much as love can be one of the most powerful things in our lives, so can grief. The two play into each other too. What happens after we lose someone, or lose the life we thought we were going to have, how do we deal with that?

Peter’s journey in this new film is about learning to live with that loss rather than letting it consume him. Jean shows us what happens when grief becomes what starts to drive every decision you make. They arrive at very different places, but they both started from the same one: loving someone deeply and being changed by losing them.

And perhaps that is the thing I love about Spider-Man most of all; why he’s my favourite superhero. Because for all the world-saving and web-slinging, he also has to figure out how to balance all these different parts of himself, of his identity; just like we all do.

Are you Peter Parker? Or are you Spider-Man?

I’m both.

All in all, I think Spider-Man: Brand New Day was fun and a great watch, and so my latest Auntie superhero mission is complete. I went to the cinema, watched Spider-Man save the day, had my heart broken by Peter and MJ, contemplated the deeper meaning of love and grief, and I’m sorry but I just have to finish by mentioning the absolute best moment of it all…

Spidey bringing Juicy trackies back. Hello, 2002, I’ve missed you.

Have you seen Spider-Man: Brand New Day yet? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!