On July 31, 2026, Spider-Man: Brand New Day will crash into theaters, bringing Tom Holland’s Peter Parker back down to his true comic-book roots: flat broke, entirely anonymous, and operating out of a cramped New York apartment with a home-sewn suit…all while undergoing some seriously scary changes.

“What happens if Peter Parker is losing control and things are changing?” That question, posed by star Tom Holland, proved to be the key to unlocking the central story to Marvel Studios and Sony’s latest installment in their collaborative Spidey franchise, Spider-Man: Brand New Day. In a move taken from the playbook of the 90s Spider-Man: The Animated Series, the premise behind Holland‘s pitch, which he called Spider-Puberty, will force Peter Parker to seek out Mark Ruffalo‘s Bruce Banner to help him untangle the web of his neogenic nightmare…but a mysterious figure looks to be intent on causing chaos, including unlocking the savage beast that Banner has worked so hard to keep suppressed.

Brand New Day will also see Spidey team up with Jon Bernthal‘s Frank Castle, the Department of Damage Control, led by Tramell Tillman‘s William Metzger, while dealing with the fallout of the ousting of Mayor Kingpin, which turned the street-level underworld of New York City has volatile pressure cooker. If you want to truly understand the landscape Peter will be navigating in the upcoming film, we have just the thing…THE ULTIMATE LIST OF WHAT TO WATCH BEFORE SPIDER-MAN BRAND NEW DAY.

The Master List

With so many pieces of the MCU intersecting in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, we’ve broken the Ultimate List into five separate thematic sections that should provide a little structure to the 110-hour and 40-minute watch party…

Section 1: Spider-Man’s MCU Journey

This track maps out Peter Parker’s rise and crushing psychological descent. From the innocent, wide-eyed boy in Civil War to the young man who has lost everything dear to him, Peter Parker’s journey spans a half dozen of the MCU’s best films.

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

🍅 90%

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

🍅 92%

Notable not only for being the first MCU-set Spidey film but also for introducing Damage Control and the debut of Michael Mando‘s Mac Gargan.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

🍅 85%

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

🍅 94%

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

🍅 91%

They’re coming here because of me, right? Because I’m Peter Parker? So cast a new spell. But this time, make everyone forget who Peter Parker is. Make everyone forget… me.

-Peter Parker

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

🍅 93%

Section 2: Blood, Sweat, and Gamma

Following a seven-year hiatus, Bruce Banner returns in Spider-Man: Brand New Day and he’s bringing his savage self along for the ride. While Banner thinks he’s got The Other Guy under control, Sadie Sink‘s mystery character has other ideas.

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

🍅 68%

Avengers (2012)

🍅 91%

These films lay the core parameters of Gamma radiation in the MCU. The Incredible Hulk establishes the threat of mutated anomalies and introduces Samuel Sterns (The Leader), while The Avengers positions Bruce Banner specifically as a weapons expert brought in to track cosmic artifacts via their Gamma signatures. It firmly roots Banner’s intelligence and his monstrous alter-ego to the physical backdrop of New York City.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

🍅 75%

This film further expands on the danger of unchecked biological and technological synthesis. Banner and Stark’s experimental arrogance leads to the Sokovia Disaster…and it’s a good reminder of the damage Hulk can do when he’s not in control.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

🍅 93%

Ragnarok bridges Banner’s lost years trapped as the Savage Hulk and kicked off a three-movie arc that redefined the character.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

🍅 91%

While it’s not necessary to watch the entire film, it’s certainly worth the watch. However, the film’s post-credit scene serves as the debut for Bruce Banner’s Gamma inhibitor which plays a role in Brand New Day.

I made this little device which keeps me in human form.

-Bruce Banner

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022)

🍅 80%

She-Hulk SHOULD be the modern bridge to Banner’s appearance in Brand New Day. It’s unclear how he goes from working in his Gamma lab in Mexico and introducing his family to his son to teaching at Empire State University but there’s enough Hulk talk to include this series on the list.

Section 3: No-Kill vs. No-Mercy

Frank Castle represents the ideological antithesis of Spider-Man. From his debut in Daredevil Season 2 through two seasons of The Punisher, Jon Bernthal‘s performance as Frank Castle has remained one of the top-tier characterizations in the MCU. On the heels of his appearance in Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 and The Punisher: One Last Kill, Castle reestablished himself as The Punisher through the subsequent transformation of grief into a cold, mechanical purpose.

Daredevil Season 2 (2016)

🍅 81%

I think that the people I kill need killing, that’s what I think.

-Frank Castle

The Punisher Season 1 (2017)

🍅 68%

The Punisher Season 2 (2019)

🍅 61%

Daredevil: Born Again, Season 1 (2025)

🍅 87%

The Punisher: One Last Kill (2026)

🍅 73%

Frank doesn’t view the New York underworld as a neighborhood to save; he views it as a target-rich environment requiring systematic eradication. Headed into Brand New Day, has zero compromise left in him, establishing the inevitable moral clash when his path crosses with a Spider-Man who firmly believes everyone deserves a second chance.

Section 4: From Clean-Up Crew to Police State

To fully appreciate Trammel Tillman’s William Metzger and those working for him inBrand New Day, you must realize that the Department of Damage Control isn’t just a janitorial clean-up crew anymore. It has quietly evolved into an authoritarian, weaponized surveillance machine, and tracking its full story requires checking in on projects outside of New York City.

Founded by Tony Stark to collect alien debris, the DODC immediately created street-level crime by putting small-time salvage workers like Adrian Toomes out of business in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Following Stark’s death, federal agents seized control of Stark’s orbital combat drones, repurposing them to hunt an unmasked, teenage Peter Parker.

Ms. Marvel (2022)

🍅 98%

Immediately following the fallout of She-Hulk repealing the Sokovia Accords, the DODC pivots to local jurisdiction enforcement. In Ms. Marvel, Agents Cleary and Deever and an aggressively militarized DODC sent heavily armed tactical squads to lock down a high school in Jersey City just to capture a powered teenager.

Wonder Man (2026)

🍅 91%

Nestled right between the seasons of Born Again, Wonder Man positiones the DODC as a full-fledged institutional villain. Operating out of the West Coast but pulling strings nationwide, they utilized state-of-the-art tracking networks to ruthlessly hunt down, intercept, and extrajudicially arrest Simon Williams for unauthorized superhero activity. By the time they hit the screen in Brand New Day, the DODC will no longer be dealing with clean-up; they will have become an apex surveillance apparatus hunting all manner of enhanced individuals.

Section 5: The Fractured City: Life After Fisk

Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be brimming with classic rogues, including Scorpion, Boomerang, Tarantula and Tombstone, who may well be angling to fill the Kingpin-sized void left by Wilson Fisk’s exile. It’ll also–for reasons that aren’t quite clear–mark the big screen debut of The Hand. Life after Fisk looks to be pretty messy for Spidey.

Daredevil, Season 1 (2015)

🍅 99%

Iron Fist, Season 1 (2017)

🍅 20%

Seasons 1 and 2 of Daredevil and Season 1 of Iron Fist outline the architecture and mythology of the Hand.

The Defenders (2017)

🍅 78%

While The Defenders showed the apparent destruction of the council beneath Midland Circle, a highly disciplined, fractured remnant of the ninja syndicate is moving back into the shadows. They aren’t there just to throw punches; their movements seem to be directly laying the narrative tracks for Elektra’s leaked return in Born Again Season 3.

Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 (2026)

🍅 87%

The political landscape of New York belongs entirely to the events of Daredevil: Born Again, Seasons 1 and 2. With Wilson Fisk using the post-Blip chaos to manipulate his way into the NYC Mayor’s office in Season 1, street-level vigilantism became public enemy number one. But while Mayor Fisk spent his political capital using the police force and legal sanctions to suppress masks, his anti-hero crusade ultimately created a massive power vacuum in the criminal underground.

The Shortcut

Should you, for some reason, not have 110+ hours to set aside, you can quickly prep for Brand New Day by pushing through these projects in one day:

• Spider-Man: No Way Home
• Wonder Man, Episodes 1 and 8
• Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Episode 8
• The Punisher: One Last Kill

About Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Spider-Man: Brand New Day stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman,
Michael Mando and Mark Ruffalo.

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and written by Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers.

Produced by Kevin Feige, p.g.a., Amy Pascal, p.g.a., Avi Arad and Rachel O’Connor,
p.g.a. Executive produced by Louis D’Esposito and David Cain.

The internet officially belongs to Spidey. Fresh industry metrics from WaveMetrix have confirmed that the second trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day has pulled down a staggering 590.8 million views in its debut week—landing it the title of the second largest trailer launch in cinema history.

Ironically, the only trailer in history that has ever outperformed this new look is the film’s first teaser from March, which cleared a billion views in mere days. The tracking data lines up flawlessly with unprecedented ticket pre-sale metrics that have completely locked out premium seating architectures across major domestic theater chains ahead of the film’s July 31 premiere.

Trapped in a New York that has completely forgotten his civilian existence, the trailer’s glimpse into Peter’s grueling physical degradation, paired with tactical street warfare involving the Punisher, a rogue Hulk, and a heavily upgraded Scorpion, has completely captured the cultural zeitgeist.

590 million views for a second trailer demonstrates that the hunger for Tom Holland‘s next chapter isn’t just stable—it’s actively expanding. Ripping away the high-tech Avengers safety nets to force a lonely Spider-Man to survive a brutal street-level crucible is the ultimate formula to cure franchise fatigue. July 31 is poised to be an absolute box-office monster that sets the MCU back on course ahead of Avengers: Doomsday.

Judith Light spent nearly a decade as Tony Danza’s boss but nothing in her impressive filmography would suggest that the Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress would make a menacing mob boss. However, in The Punisher: One Last Kill, Light brings one of Frank Castle’s most menacing and determined foes to life with convincing verisimilitude.

Light plays Isabella “Ma” Gnucci, the head of the Gnucci Crime Family who tried to take Castle out in Volume 5 of The Punisher, written by Garth Ennis. The 12-issue arc, known as “Welcome Back, Frank”, launched Ennis’ 49-issue run with the character and has long been hailed as a classic Punisher tale. Harboiled and gruesome, “Welcome Back, Frank” took the character back to his roots and allowed him to do what he does best: kill bad guys with extreme prejudice…and a flamethrower.

In terms of MCU Punisher continuity, Ma Gnucci makes quite a bit of sense as an antagonist for the project, given that Frank wiped out several members of the Gnucci Crime Family in Episode 1.01 of The Punisher, “3 AM” and, subsequently killed her husband and sons as part of his vendetta against those who were responsible for the death of his family. In One Last Kill, it’s revealed that Ma Gnucci has been patiently planning the Punisher’s demise and puts a bounty on his head while revealing exactly where he can be found.

Unfortunately for Gnucci, her plan to put down Castle fails, not only leaving him alive but providing a glimpse of purpose that ultimately leads to him becoming The Punisher once more.

Somewhat surprisingly, Gnucci’s role–and that of her intriguing bodyguard Barry–is rather minimal, foreshadowing a future showdown between her and Castle. While Castle’s next appearance is in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it seems clear that Bernthal already has the next gruesome steps in the character’s MCU journey outlined and it looks like the boss will be back as well.

Though it’s been sold in part as an adaptation of Marvel Comics Devil’s Reign, showrunner Dario Scardapane‘s inspiration for the narrative structure of Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again came from a slightly more surprising source. With career criminal Wilson Fisk–Mayor Kingpin–having  driven Daredevil, Karen Page and New York City’s other vigilantes underground, the synopsis for Season 2 paints Daredevil as “public enemy number one” and promises that Murdock will “fight back from the shadows.” Resist. Rebel. Rebuild. In promoting the new season, Scardapane has revealed that he envisioned the new episodes as “resistance story”, heavily inspired by French film noir, specifically the 1969 Jean-Pierre Melville masterpiece, Army of Shadows.

To tell a resistance tale with fidelity to the genre, Season 2 will need to put the Big Apple in a pressure cooker, examine the corruption inherent to absolute power, challenge the ideology of the resistance and force Murdock to not only make Daredevil a symbol or resistance but also force him, at some point, to bear the weight of sacrifice. Episode 1, “The Northern Star”, sets the stage for the escalation of the revolution teased in the Season 1 finale, immediately crossing the point of no return as the presence of Daredevil forces the scuttling of The Northern Star (keep that wording in mind for the finale).

In choosing to frame the new season as a resistance story, Scardapane turned a superhero story into an exploration of the volatile space between oppression and freedom, a deep dive into the psychology of power and the cost of change. Fortunately, sitting at center of it, is the Man without Fear. Smartly, the first episode establishes that Matt, Karen et al face a steep uphill climb to win the hearts and minds of the citizens of New York. In this regard, the BB Report continues to serve as a monitor of the pulse of the populace and as the new season kicks off, it ain’t too fuckin’ good as far as Daredevil is concerned. The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen is already an enemy of the state and Fisk attempts to leverage the scuttling of the Northern Star–a ship he’s using to smuggle weapons–to further his personal (V for) vendetta.

Though New Yorkers don’t see it quite yet, not Nelson, Murdock and Page are leading the charge against a state-sponsored occupation. Propaganda-littered streets, a secret police and abuses of office drive the resistance further underground while the Kingpin sits in his cold monolith of power, revealing a fundamentally broken system that, ironically, only the blind man and his closest allies can see. It’s a scenario so twisted that not even the representative of a higher authority can crack the shell, as Kingpin’s it’s-all-connected connections allow him to remain above the law even as Matthew Lillard‘s Mr. Charles power plays the Fat Man.

Brilliantly, just as it looks as though Matt’s efforts to resist will be extraordinarily short-lived, Scardapane reintroduces the classic Daredevil agent of chaos in the closing moments of the episode. Given Bullseye’s talents and tolerance, his intervention can practically be counted upon to disrupt both the regime and the resistance, especially given the reality that he has no skin in the ideological game being played by Fisk and Murdock. Bullseye’s intervention portends a rapid, disorder-driven deterioration not only of the structure of Matt and Karen’s revolution but also of Kingpin’s very ordered sense of things. Vive la Résistance!

Source: The Hindu

For some time now, principal photography on Avengers: Secret Wars–the final film in Marvel Studios potholed Multiverse Saga–was expected to start production early this summer. Though the beginning of production is always tricky to nail down when there are so many moving parts, June was often floated as a start date for the film, which is not due in theaters until December 2027. Now it seems there’s a bit of a delay.

According to industry insider Daniel Richtman, it is now expected that cameras won’t begin rolling on Avengers: Secret Wars until August.

While you can all but guarantee that the move will generate the usual distress among fans, it still leaves 16 months for the film to be shot and edited and allows for plenty of time for additional photography.

Lucasfilm has planned a year long celebration of George Lucas’ original Star Wars film for 2027, including a theatrical re-release of the original 1977 film. Now, fans can mark their calendars and plan their parties.

In an official release via StarWars.com, Lucasfilm has revealed that Star Wars will be back in theaters beginning February 19, 2027. The film originally released on May 25, 1977.

Though it’s long been believed Lucas would never re-release the film as it originally debuted, the site confirms that it will be “a newly restored version” of the original. Han shoots first(?)