If the new Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer felt a little familiar to you, it’s probably because director Destin Daniel Cretton is tapping into a very specific era of Spidey lore. While the movie takes its name from the 2008 comic reset, the footage is screaming “Neogenic Nightmare”—the infamous Season 2 arc from the beloved Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
Cretton has previously cited the 90s cartoon as his definitive version of the wall-crawler, and the trailer confirms he’s bringing that show’s brand of genetic anxiety to the MCU.
In the 14-epiaose second season of the animated series, Peter’s greatest enemy wasn’t a guy in a suit; it was his own DNA. And from what can be gleaned from the long-awaited first trailer, that seems to be the case for Tom Holland‘s Peter in Brand New Day.
Faces with a problem he can’t handle on his own, Peter isn’t seeking help from a wizard this time; he’s going to Bruce Banner. We see Banner warning Peter that if his DNA continues to mutate, it will be “enormously dangerous.” The decision echoes Peter seeking out help from Charles Xavier, who is something of an expert himself on mutations, in “The Mutant Agenda” episode.
While some of the information about the plot of the new film leaked some time ago, fans theorized that Peter’s transformation wouldn’t actually take place in the film but was rather a hallucination caused by Jean Grey, who is reportedly being played by Sadie Sink. However, the trailer explicitly shows Peter waking up in a web-like cocoon and realizing he’s developed organic web-shooters. In the 90s show, these power upgrades were among the terrifying first symptoms of what was to come.
Between a beleaguered Peter collapsing and the life cycles monologue from Tombstone, the trailer is heavily foreshadowing a physical transformation. If Peter’s DNA is truly mutating as Banner says, it seems as though the Man-Spider won’t be far behind.
To further the similarities, Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle makes his long-awaited film debut here, though his role seems to be far different from the one in the animated series in which the Punisher hunts Spidey.
By blending the forgotten man status quo of the comics with the genetic tragedy of the 90s show, Cretton is truly cooking with some special gas. Simply put, the more time Peter spends as Spidey, the more he becomes the Spider. And without his friends to ground him in a world where nobody remembers him, Brand New Day looks to be a desperate race against time to stop Peter from turning into something unrecognizable.
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