Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: MCU

  • Neogenic Nightmares — ‘Brand New Day’ Mixes Full Body Horror with 90s Animated Vibes

    Neogenic Nightmares — ‘Brand New Day’ Mixes Full Body Horror with 90s Animated Vibes

    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.

  • ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Trailer Swings In

    A new day has officially dawned for Peter Parker…and things are going great. After a global, fan-led marketing blitz that saw snippets of the film popping up from Lima to Seoul, Sony and Marvel have finally dropped the full trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

    Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton m, this fourth Tom Holland-led entry isn’t just a sequel; it’s being framed as a rebirth. Set four years after the world forgot Peter Parker, we find a hero who has mastered the Spider-Man side of his life but is completely failing at the Peter side.

    The Monologue

    The trailer is anchored by a chilling, gravelly voiceover from what sounds an awful lot like Keith David. He lays out the film’s core theme: “Spiders have three life cycles. And between cycles, it can leave the spider vulnerable to threats. Those spiders that survive… go through a kind of rebirth.“

    Key Trailer Reveals

    • The Key to the City Spoiler: In a move that has already set the Daredevil fandom on fire, one clip shows Spider-Man receiving the key to New York City from Sheila Rivera who is definitely not Wilson Fisk. This seemingly confirms that the Mayor Fisk era comes to a definitive (and likely disgraced) end in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2
    • The Punisher & The Hulk: We get our first look at Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle and Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner. While Peter initially goes to Banner to help with his glitching, unstable powers, rumors tease a much darker turn—with Ruffalo tapping into the feral, out-of-control Grey Hulk persona.
    • The MJ Mystery: Despite the spell, MJ is back. The trailer shows a heart-wrenching moment where Peter attends a college party only to see MJ with a new boyfriend. However, a later shot shows Spidey and MJ sharing a moment on a rooftop, suggesting that while she doesn’t know Peter, she’s starting to know the man under the mask.
    • The Man-Spider: Peter’s body is literally fighting him. We see him collapsing in his apartment and mention of a metamorphosis. It seems as though the rumors of the Man-Spider transformation are true, setting up the most body-horror-heavy Spidey film to date.

    The trailer’s action peak features a massive prison break involving Michael Mando’s Scorpion and a literal army of Hand Ninjas in bright red, comic-accurate gear. This marks the first time the Hand has appeared in the MCU and they look deadlier than ever.

    After the record-breaking global success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Spider-Man: Brand New Day marks an entirely new chapter for Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Four years have passed since the events of No Way Home, and Peter is now an adult living entirely alone, having voluntarily erased himself from the lives and memories of those he loves. Crime-fighting in a New York that no longer knows his name, he’s devoted himself entirely to protecting his city — a full-time Spider-Man — but as the demands on him intensify, the pressure sparks a surprising physical evolution that threatens his existence, even as a strange new pattern of crimes gives rise to one of the most powerful threats he has ever faced.

    -Official synopsis
  • Jessica Jones’ Return Respects the Seven-Year Gap Since Season 3

    Jessica Jones’ Return Respects the Seven-Year Gap Since Season 3

    When Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones steps back onto the rain-slicked streets of Hell’s Kitchen in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, she won’t be the same person we left behind in 2019. In a move that prioritizes narrative weight over easy nostalgia, showrunner Dario Scardapane has confirmed that the MCU is leaning into the real-world passage of time, treating the seven-year gap since the Netflix era as canon.

    Speaking on the character’s evolution, Scardapane made it clear that they aren’t interested in a “frozen in time” version of the character. “One of the things we’ve leaned into is that time has passed… We’re acknowledging that. These characters have matured; they’ve gone through life,” Scardapane told SFX Magazine.

    The question driving her return is simple but fascinating: What does it look like for a bourbon-swilling smartass to mature seven years in a world that has been through the Blip and a Kingpin takeover?

    The show respects the timeline since Jessica Jones Season 3 ended on Netflix. By the time we see her in Born Again (set in 2027), nearly a decade has passed in-universe since her last standalone adventure. Unlike Matt Murdock, Jessica doesn’t wear a mask. Scardapane noted that this makes her particularly vulnerable in the Mayor Fisk era. While Daredevil can hide in the shadows, Jessica is a known quantity to the Anti-Vigilante Task Force.

    Scardapane hinted that he is drawing from a specific “next chapter” of her life found in the comics. For those following the source material, this has immediately set off alarm bells for one very specific direction things could go, but one that has not been hinted at even remotely in any marketing for the series.

    L-R: Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) and Matt Murdock / Daredevil (Charlie Cox) in Marvel Television’s DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Jojo Whilden. © 2025 MARVEL.

    The official production notes for Season 2 also highlight a 6-month time jump from the end of Born Again Season 1. This means that by the time Jessica enters the fray, Fisk’s administration has truly taken hold, and the underground resistance—led by Matt and Karen—is in desperate need of a heavy hitter who has gone through life and come out the other side.

    By acknowledging the gap, Marvel is finally connecting the dots of the Defenders Saga in a way that feels organic. This isn’t a reboot; it’s a sequel. Scardapane’s reverence for Melissa Rosenberg’s original Netflix run suggests that while Jessica has changed, the hard-edged soul of the character remains intact. She’s just a little older, a little wiser, and likely a lot more dangerous to anyone standing in her way.

  • The Wait is Over—’Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Marketing Campaign Officially Swings Into Action

    The Wait is Over—’Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Marketing Campaign Officially Swings Into Action

    The pressure has been building for Sony and Marvel to finally show their hand on Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Today, the dam officially broke. With the launch of the official website, the road to Spider-Man: Brand New Day is finally open.

    Starting off a brand new day, Tom Holland officially launched the marketing campaign for the fourth installment in the Spidey franchise by revealing that ahead of tomorrow’s full trailer release, snippets of the reel will be shared throughout the day by the Spider-Man fan community.

    The first snippet of footage to arrive–via a fan account in Peru–revealed a slow-motion look at a recreation of the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15, the first appearance of Spider-Man.

    The second snippet shows a dazed Peter Parker collapsing

    Peter Parkour!

    Who or what is causing this?!

    Stay tuned for more updates throughout the day…

  • Daredevil Finally Gets the “DD” Chest Logo in ‘Born Again’ Season 2

    Daredevil Finally Gets the “DD” Chest Logo in ‘Born Again’ Season 2

    It’s been over a decade since Charlie Cox first donned the horns in 2015, and while he’s worn everything from black ninja rags to “ketchup and mustard” yellow, there has been one glaring omission for comic purists: the logo. No longer. As has been featured prominently in the marketing for the new season, Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Matt Murdock has finally graduated to the iconic intertwined DDs.

    For Charlie Cox, the inclusion of the logo isn’t just a design tweak—it’s a narrative milestone. Reflecting on the ten-year journey to this suit, Cox noted, “I doubted whether that would ever happen. They made me earn it… I just waited for it to be something that would be hopefully inevitable.” In the context of the show, the logo represents Matt Murdock fully embracing his identity as a figurehead for the Hell’s Kitchen resistance.

    Fans of Charles Soule’s Daredevil run and the Shadowland event will recognize the aesthetic immediately. The Season 2 suit is predominantly black with red lenses and a blood-red “DD” logo front and center. Costume designer Emily Gunshor revealed a brilliant bit of visual storytelling for the new threads. The lore of the show is that Matt took his red suit from Season 1 and spray-painted it black to stay in hiding from Fisk’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force. As the season progresses and Daredevil gets into more scrapes, the black paint will actually chip and peel away, revealing the original red underneath, providing a literal “Born Again” metaphor for the suit itself.

    Matt Murdock/Daredevil (Charlie Cox) in Marvel Television’s DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Jojo Whilden. © 2026 MARVEL.

    It took Gunshor’s team 18 weeks to construct the suit, with six total versions created for Cox and his stunt double, Niko Stavropolous. They even went as far as creating six different shades of red lenses for the mask to ensure the color remained consistent regardless of New York’s fickle night lighting.

    By saying it with his whole chest, Murdock is moving away from the guerrilla vigilante of the Netflix era and into a symbol of open defiance against Mayor Fisk. Embracing the logo is Matt’s way of telling Fisk—and the city—exactly who is leading the rebellion. As Cox put it: “When I found out I had the double Ds, I was like, I hope I get paparazzi. I was so proud of it.”

    Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again begins streaming on D+ on March 24th.

  • Marvel Launches Official ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Companion Podcast Ahead of Season 2 Premiere

    Marvel Launches Official ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Companion Podcast Ahead of Season 2 Premiere

    If you thought the hype for Matt Murdock’s return couldn’t get any louder, Marvel Television is making sure you’re fully immersed before the first frame of Season 2 even hits your screen. Disney has officially announced the Daredevil: Born Again Official Podcast, a nine-episode video companion series launching March 17.

    This isn’t just a standard promotional fluff piece; Marvel is positioning this as their first official podcast on D+, signaling a major shift in how they handle behind-the-scenes content for their heavy-hitter series.

    The Actors on Actors Deep Dive

    L-R: Matt Murdock / Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) in Marvel Television’s DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Television. © 2026 MARVEL.

    Launching exactly one week before the March 24 premiere of Season 2, the podcast kicks off with a massive Season 1 retrospective. Episode 1 will feature Wilson Bethel, showrunner Dario Scardapane, and Marvel’s streaming skipper, Brad Winderbaum, looking back at the chaos that brought us to Fisk’s mayoral reign.

    Subsequent episodes will drop alongside the series, featuring an unprecedented look at stunts, costumes, and those inevitable Easter eggs. Expect to see Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Deborah Ann Woll in intimate, actors on actors style conversations. In a smart move for accessibility, the video version will stream on both Disney+ and YouTube, while audio-only listeners can find it on all major platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

    The Season 2 Stakes

    L-R: Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) and Matt Murdock / Daredevil (Charlie Cox) in Marvel Television’s DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Jojo Whilden. © 2025 MARVEL.

    The announcement also gave us a fresh look at the Season 2 logline, and it’s grim: Mayor Wilson Fisk is officially hunting Daredevil as “public enemy number one.” The tagline—Resist. Rebel. Rebuild.—suggests we’re moving away from the courtroom and into a full-blown urban insurgency.

    In Season 2 of Marvel Television’s Daredevil: Born Again, Mayor Wilson Fisk crushes New York City underfoot as he hunts down public enemy number one, the Hell’s Kitchen vigilante known as Daredevil. But, beneath the horned mask, Matt Murdock will try to fight back from the shadows to tear down the Kingpin’s corrupt empire and redeem his home. Resist. Rebel. Rebuild.

    -Official synopsis for Daredevil: Born Again Season 2

    With a cast that includes Krysten Ritter and Matthew Lillard, the Born Again era is clearly Marvel’s new flagship. By launching this podcast, they’re creating a sticky ecosystem for fans to obsess over every detail of the Kingpin’s corrupt empire.

    Marvel is taking a page out of the HBO playbook here. Shows like The Last of Us and Succession proved that a high-quality companion podcast can keep the conversation alive all week long. For a show as dense and anticipated as Daredevil, giving fans a direct line to Scardapane and the cast is the best way to ensure Born Again dominates the cultural zeitgeist through the spring.

  • ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Trailer Length Leaks; More Evidence Suggests Web-Head Returns Wednesday

    ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Trailer Length Leaks; More Evidence Suggests Web-Head Returns Wednesday

    The wait is almost over. Following the launch of the official website (SpiderManBrandNewDay.movie), the digital detectives have cracked the source code, and it’s good news for Spidey fans…and a now deleted post from an official Sony distributor seems to have confirmed the release date.

    As shared by Top News, a Kazakhstani distributor shares a post on Instagram that seemed to confirm the rumored March 18th release date at 7:05 AM ET. While it’s not been confirmed to be official, it certainly seems like a case where a partner jumped the gun and was forced to remove the post.

    The specific runtime of 1:59 was first signaled by the insider account The Beyond Reporter. This account has gained significant traction recently for having access to the metadata of Sony’s promotional materials before they go live. According to their report, the cut being sent to theaters for the March 20 release of Project Hail Mary is a 119-second “Teaser 1.”

    This 1:59 length reportedly matches the master cut of the blurry teaser that leaked back in December 2025. Many fans noted that the leaked footage felt like a complete, two-minute narrative arc. The fact that the official metadata matches that length suggests that Sony hasn’t heavily re-edited the teaser since the leak, but is instead finally ready to release the high-definition, official version.

  • Tobey and Hugh Reportedly Set to Clash in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’

    Tobey and Hugh Reportedly Set to Clash in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’

    If you think Deadpool & Wolverine was the peak of nostalgia, buckle up. For years, Kevin Feige has reportedly wanted to see the Kings of the 2000s share the screen, and per a new reports from one of the internets busiest bees, that moment is coming at the literal start of the next Avengers epic.

    As we move through March 2026, the multiversal floodgates have officially opened. While the rumor mill was initially focused on these two clashing in Avengers: Doomsday, a new report suggests that Marvel Studios and Sony are looking far beyond a simple cameo.

    According to industry scooper MyTimeToShineHello, Marvel and Sony are reportedly in early discussions to develop a standalone Spider-Man and Wolverine team-up movie, starring Hugh Jackman and Tobey Maguire.

    Marvel is reportedly looking at the massive success of Deadpool & Wolverine as proof of concept for high-stakes legacy team-ups. Instead of just being part of the massive Avengers ensemble, this standalone project would allow for a deep dive into the dynamic between these two specific icons, who have so often co-inhabited Marvel Comics stories.

    Interestingly, Jackman once revealed that a Wolverine cameo was actually planned for Sam Raimi‘s 2002 Spider-Man, but fell through because the crew couldn’t access his suit. This movie would essentially be the 25-year payoff for that lost moment. Other rumors have suggested that Maguire and Jackman are being positioned as the main protagonists of Avengers: Secret Wars. A standalone film could serve as the bridge or prequel to their roles in that event and would almost certainly own the box office for weeks.

    We really tried to get me to come on and do something, whether it was a gag or just to walk through the shot or something. The problem was, we couldn’t find the suit. The suit was stuck in some thing. And so when they were in New York when I was there, we couldn’t get it together.

    -Hugh Jackman on a Spider-Man and Wolverine team-up, 2013

    A standalone Spider-Man and Wolverine movie could potentially take place on Battleworld, featuring the two heroes navigating Doom’s patchwork reality before the final showdown in Secret Wars…or, given recent comments by both actors, it could simply be engagement bait.

  • Mask On? John Campea Claims RDJ’s Face Won’t Be Seen in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’

    Mask On? John Campea Claims RDJ’s Face Won’t Be Seen in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’

    The discourse around Robert Downey Jr.’s Doom just took another turn. Recently, the consensus among the scooper community has been that while Victor Von Doom would keep his mask on when in front of the 616 heroes, the audience would get that meta moment of seeing RDJ’s face—likely to hammer home the tragedy of a man who looks exactly like the hero we lost in Avengers: Endgame.

    However, John Campea is now throwing a monkey into that wrench. On a recent episode of his show, Campea stated that he has confirmed Marvel is keeping the mask firmly in place for the duration of Avengers::Doomsday, saving the face reveal  for the grand finale in 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars.

    One of the rumors about Doomsday that we did confirm for people is that they do not reveal Robert Downey Jr.’s face as Doctor Doom… they don’t reveal Tony Stark’s face or Robert Downey Jr.’s face in Doomsday, and that the repercussions of that and the reasons for that and all that kind of stuff is something they’re saving for Secret Wars.

    -John Campea

    To mask or not to mask, that is the question but it’s hardly a new debate. But with Robert Downey Jr. in the role, it seems hard to believe that Marvel invested that kind of money just for a voice-over performance and a stunt double in a green cape.

    If Campea is right, Marvel is making a bold, narrative-driven choice. By withholding the face, they’re forcing the audience to treat Victor as a separate entity from Tony Stark. It builds tension so  when that mask finally comes off in Secret Wars, it’s a tactical emotional nuke designed to break the heroes, perhaps mirroring the division in Captain America: Civil War.

    This contradicts several other reports that suggested the audience see a scarred version of the 616-Stark-lookalike early on. If Campea’s info holds water, it means the brothers Russos are leaning into the horror of Doom, which does match up with  Film Threat’s Chris Gore’s claim that Doom’s face will be disfigured and, in his opinion, looks to be inspired by the look of creatures from “classic Universal Monster movies.”

    If they’re saving the face for Avengers: Secret Wars, they’re betting everything on a singular moment of shock to carry the entire Multiverse Saga finale.

  • Rumors Suggest Danny Rand Will Punch His Way Into ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2

    Rumors Suggest Danny Rand Will Punch His Way Into ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2

    It’s certainly starting to look as though the creative overhaul of Daredevil: Born Again wasn’t just about fixing Matt Murdock. With Marvel’s streaming skipper Brad Winderbaum making it clear that Daredevil will be the studio’s flagship series for the near future, it looks like Kevin Feige is using the show to systematically rebuild the entire Netflix-era Defenders roster. We’ve already got Jon Bernthal’s Punisher back in the mix, with his own Special Presentation coming soon, and Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones will return later this month. But today, the most divisive member of the team is stepping back into the spotlight.

    According to a report from Cryptic4KQual—a source that has become increasingly reliable regarding Marvel’s production schedules—Finn Jones is set to reprise his role as Danny Rand in the second season of Born Again…or at least be mentioned.

    I think this world is extremely rich, and there are many stories to be told on the streets of New York.

    -Brad Winderbaum

    The first season of Iron Fist is often cited as the low point of the Netflix era. But by the time The Defenders and Iron Fist Season 2 rolled around, fans have argued Jones had finally started to find the groove of the character and the character seemed to be headed in the right direction. If Marvel Studios is bringing him back, you can bet they aren’t interested in retreading the corporate boardroom drama of the old show.

    The rumor suggests that Danny’s return won’t just be a cameo. Instead, it’ll be a “tease” that sets up a more significant role. Perhaps suiting up as Daredevil while Matt Murdock is behind bars? Ed Brubaker’s “The Devil in Cell-Block D” continues to be a popular pick for quasi-inspiration for Season 3 of Daredevil: Born Again and might serve as the perfect way to reintroduce Danny Rand while making him more palatable to MCU fans.