Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is going through changes in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Set four years after the events of 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home, in which Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) cast a multiverse-saving spell to make everyone forget Peter Parker, including girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), the new movie finds Peter living alone and shouldering his responsibilities as a full-time friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Per the official synopsis, Peter has "devoted himself entirely to protecting his city," facing costumed foes Tarantula and Boomerang before tangling with major threats like Scorpion (Michael Mando), Tombstone (Marvin "Krondon" Jones III), and the red ninjas of the Hand. Add the presence ofJon Bernthal's Punisher and a rampaging Avenger in Mark Ruffalo's Hulk, and the resulting pressure on Spider-Man "sparks a surprising physical evolution that threatens his existence."

Blockbuster anticipation is not just about size. Size is easy. A release date, a logo, a giant cast photo, a CinemaCon sizzle reel, none of that automatically means a movie has real heat in it. The blockbusters people go feral for usually promise something more specific. A return. A collision. A risk. A long-awaited payoff. A director getting too much money and enough trust to do something gloriously overcommitted. That is the difference between big movie and “I need opening night.”

There has been plenty of content for Marvel fans to dive into since the MCU switched lanes in 2019 after Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home. While there was once only two Marvel movies to watch every year at most, it’s now more common to see three movies and three or four shows — many fans would argue that this trend has taken the spark out of the MCU that it had in 2019. There have already been three MCU projects in 2026, beginning with Wonder Man, the critically acclaimed show starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley. The series followed closely by Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 (starring Charlie Cox), which tied into The Punisher: One Last Kill, the Special Presentation starring Jon Bernthal. The MCU has a pair of feature films coming this year as well.

With a brand-new Spider-Man movie must come brand-new villains. While previous adaptations pit the friendly neighborhood wall-crawler against such classic comic book Spider-foes as the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Sandman, Electro, the Vulture, and Mysterio, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is taking an even bigger swing by having Tom Holland’s Peter Parker face off with a gauntlet of B-list supervillains. Besides the returning Mac Gargan (Michael Mando) — suiting up as the pincered Scorpion nearly a decade after we last saw him in the post-credits stinger in 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming — the Sony-Marvel franchise’s fourth installment expands Spider-Man’s rogues gallery with the likes of the spike-toed Tarantula, Aussie assassin Boomerang, marble-skinned mobster Tombstone (Marvin "Krondon" Jones III), and … Hand ninjas?