It’s a BRAND NEW DAY for Peter Parker. Fighting crime full-time as Spider-Man in a world that doesn’t remember him—and the pressure of seeing his old friends move on without him—sparks a change in Peter he may not have the power to control. But that transformation might also be the only thing that can stop a shocking new threat to the city and those he loves – a powerful villain no one can even see.
The world may have forgotten Peter Parker, but he hasn’t forgotten them.
Tom Holland returns as the titular character for the fourth standalone Spider-Man film in the MCU, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with director Destin Daniel Cretton taking on the character after the previous success in the MCU with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Wonder Man. The film also stars Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, and Mark Ruffalo.
As Spider-Man: Brand New Day prepares to swing into Australian cinemas on July 30, Nick L’Barrow was invited to attend the film’s global virtual press conference to her Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Destin Daniel Cretton, and producers Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige talk (as much as the can without spoilers) about bringing this new film to the big screen.
SPIDERMAN press conference
On Destin Daniel Crettin taking over the directing duties for Brand New Day…
Tom Holland: I think that we are so lucky to have Destin as the captain of our ship. You know, he came into this process when the movie was going in 100 different directions, and really what we needed was someone to come in and focus us all on one idea. And that’s what’s so amazing about Destin is that he’s able to do that and focus on this idea of what is life like for a young person who is alone. That is something people are dealing with all across the world. And it doesn’t sacrifice the action or the scale of the movie. If we didn’t have Destin, this movie wouldn’t be half of what it is.
Amy Pascal: Destin was a gift that Kevin introduced to us that we chased and chased and chased and begged and begged and begged, and he finally said, “Eh, all right!”
Kevin Feige: I mean he did such a great job on Shang-Chi for us, and it was such a great experience. And when you find people like that, like many of the people here, we want to keep them. We want to work with them, and keep working with them. We were doing that with Destin. He did a show for us called Wonder Man, which is an excellent show. And he was working on a couple of other movies for us. When this sort of opened up and we realised maybe this would be the one, I suggested Tom and Amy meet with him, and it went very, very, very well.
On the challenge of following up No Way Home…
Amy Pascal: Oh, well, we put ourselves in a really difficult position at the end of that movie [No Way Home] because those movies that we’d made before were all about people finding out who Spider-Man was, making life different than what Spider-Man usually has. So what we decided to do is make it much more difficult and take him back to a place where nobody knew who he was, because that is always Spider-Man’s dilemma. After you make a movie about three Spider-Men, there could be a tendency to want to make a movie that is more gigantic. And what we decided, especially because of the director we had, was to make a movie that was smaller and about somebody’s personal life. And that was about Peter.
Destin Daniel Cretton: Brand New Day, I think is something Peter hasn’t quite learned yet at the beginning of this movie. I think the title represents something that he is deep inside hoping for, and you see that in many ways Peter and many of the other characters in this movie find that feeling of a new start, a “brand new day”, over the journey of this film.
On where we find Peter Parker at the start of Brand New Day…
Tom Holland: I think you meet Peter Parker at the beginning of the darkest chapter of his life. You know, to me, the thing I love the most about the film is that it really represents, or is a cautionary tale, for the dangers of living a life alone and not having a community, not having friends. And a lesson that he learned from Andrew’s character in the previous movie is that sometimes the bravest thing that you can do is ask for help. And he is actively ignoring that advice, and it’s having a profound effect on his life as a human being. But then on the other side of that, as Spider-Man, he is thriving. You probably see the most truthful version of what Spider-Man means to New York City at the beginning of this movie. And the smashing of those two worlds is such a fun thing for us to play with.
On how MJ and Ned now fit into a world where they don’t know Peter Parker…
Jacob Batalon: I think unfortunately for Peter, you know, Ned and MJ live great, full lives! But I think there’s also a veil of feeling like something is missing. And I guess for Ned, the Spidey-Tracker thing is his way of finding that missing link between them and Spider-Man.
Zendaya: I feel like it was a fun acting exercise. It was fun to investigate and think about what their lives have been like without Peter. For us, he never existed, but clearly there’s an effect of Peter on our lives. The fact that we’re friends and still living in New York together must mean something. In the other films, MJ was always the pessimist, and Peter was the optimist. So it’s interesting to see that reversal. Now, he’s alone, he’s kind of adopted that negativity and she’s adopted his positivity without even knowing it.
On The Punisher entering the picture…
Jon Bernthal: I’m enormously protective of Frank and what The Punisher stands for. The real question for me, and it’s such a testament to Destin, Amy, Kevin and Tom, was how we make it believable that he could walk out of a TV-MA show onto this set. And I often think in art, when you get to the crux of an issue, if you don’t run away from it and treat the audience with respect, they’re also not going to have an issue with it. You get something really great. I think you’re going to get that here.
Tom Holland: I think Destin managed that tonal shift in such an amazing what because I feel like we don’t compromise Frank and The Punisher in any way. That was really important to everyone up here today. I’m so excited for people to see the relationship between Spider-Man and Frank. There’s so much conflict to carry every scene we have together, but the way the conflict is resolved is fulfilling, and satisfying, and also scary!
On the mysterious character Sadie Sink is playing…
Sadie Sink: I didn’t have the script for a while, but I talked to Destin a bunch about the character. So I had a good idea of where things were going. But it’s a secret I’ve had to keep for quite a while. I’m such a huge fan of Spider-Man – Tom’s Spider-Man especially – so, it feels surreal to be joining.
Amy Pascal: You’ll be surprised. The thing that is true for her character in the movie is that she’s going through the same thing as the other characters. They’re all going through the same sense of isolation and feeling alienated and in denial about the lives they’re living. Sadie is a magnificent actress, as everyone knows, and that’s why it wasn’t hard for her to step into it.
Kevin Feige: We were discussing character and villain agendas, and we had sort of an idea for a story line where we were considering the various characters who would fit the story. And the reason it is the character people will see very soon, is because of Sadie. There was no audition process or anything.
Thank you to Sony Pictures for inviting us to this global press conference. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in Australian cinemas July 30.
