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Going Deeper, Not Bigger: Critics Praise “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” as Tom Holland’s Most Emotional Spidey Film Yet

By The Credits  |  July 28, 2026

The first reactions are in for director Destin Daniel Cretton’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and after a five-year wait since the last Spidey film, 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, legions of fans are ready for Peter Parker to swing back into theaters. The good news is, according to the first reactions from critics, the Tom Holland-led fourth film in the latest franchise delivers and then some.

First, let’s briefly set up the stakes in Brand New Day by giving you a quick tour of Peter Parker’s unfolding identity crisis. Spider-Man’s identity was revealed by Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, when Mysterio framed Peter for murder. Then, in No Way Home, Peter asked Doctor Strange to make everyone forget that he’s Spider-Man, but as Strange was conjuring the spell, Peter kept asking for rule changes so that MJ (Zendaya), Ned (Jacob Batalon), and Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) would still remember him. Peter’s meddling messed with Strange’s concentration and resulted in the multiverse tearing open, pulling alternate-universe villains like Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), and Electro (Jamie Foxx), as well as additional Peters (played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield) into Peter’s universe. In order to fix this mess, close the tears in the multiverse, and save reality, Peter asked Strange to cast the ultimate spell—make everyone in the universe completely forget who Peter Parker is. Thus, he was sacrificing his relationship to MJ, the love of his life, as well as Ned. He’d already lost Aunt May in the chaos of No Way Home.

Which brings us to Brand New Day, set four years after the events of the last film, in which MJ and Ned return to New York after graduating from MIT and get an apartment together. Peter can do little more than follow them on social media and pine after his beloved girlfriend and best friend, but their paths will converge when the troubles begin. A mysterious threat and some weirdness with his own powers send Peter to another former ally, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), while New York is also enjoying the vigilante stylings of someone a little rougher than Spider-Man, the Punisher (Jon Bernthal). The film also includes Sadie Sink in an undisclosed role, Tramell Tillman, and Michael Mando as Mac Gargan/the Scorpion.

As Cretton told The Hollywood Reporter, it was the groundedness of the fourth film and the very personal stakes that resonated with him. “I really gravitated toward exploring a character who is, by every sense of the word, completely alone. The character hasn’t really experienced this before in his life. I’ve been through those stages. And I think it’s a subject that a lot of people will relate to right now…I don’t think there’s any way of trying to emulate the last movie. In terms of stakes, you can’t really go bigger than that last movie. So rather than trying to go bigger, we were hoping to go deeper in a different way.” 

Ahead of its July 31 release, Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s second trailer broke the record for the most views in a 24-hour period, racking up 718 million views. Brand New Day was written by Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna. The film was produced by Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige.

Let’s check out those first reactions:

Featured image: Tom Holland is Spider-Man in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.” Courtesy Sony Pictures.

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The Credits

The Credits is the Motion Picture Association's online platform that profiles below-the-line filmmakers and TV creators. Through in-depth interviews and coverage, we shine a spotlight on all the individuals who are indispensable to the entertainment industry and create the films and series we love.