It's not every day a superhero trailer lands and genuinely raises more questions than it answers — but then again, Spider-Man has never played by the rules. The latest trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrived alongside ticket sales going live, and it's fair to say the internet has not been taking it calmly.
Tom Holland returns for his fourth solo outing as Peter Parker, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, and if this new footage is anything to go by, it promises to be his most chaotic yet. Set four years after the events of No Way Home — in which the world was made to forget Peter Parker ever existed — the film finds our hero still grappling with a life lived entirely in the shadows of his own making.
A World That's Moved On Without Him
The emotional gut-punch of this trailer is quietly devastating. Zendaya's MJ and Jacob Batalon's Ned still have no memory of their best friend, despite Ned apparently having set up an entire Spider Tracker to follow the anonymous wall-crawler around New York. Peter, meanwhile, is still grieving Aunt May — whose voice drifts over the footage in one of the trailer's most poignant moments — and watching his old friends build new lives without him.
But personal grief is only the half of it. Something is happening to Peter physically. Organic webs. Blacked-out spider eyes. A body going through what fans have already gleefully dubbed 'Spider-Puberty'. The official synopsis leans into it directly:
"Fighting crime full-time as Spider-Man in a world that doesn't remember 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."
Quite what's triggering these changes — whether it's grief, stress, or something far more sinister — remains tantalisingly unclear. The more comic-book-minded corners of the film fandom are already pointing fingers at Mephisto, Morlun, or the long-rumoured Jackal as the hidden hand behind it all.
The Hulk Is Back — and Someone's Pulling the Strings
One of the trailer's biggest reveals had been hiding in plain sight for weeks, thanks to an eagle-eyed LEGO set that showed Spider-Man squaring off against the Hulk. The first trailer had featured Bruce Banner but conspicuously no green alter ego, leaving fans to speculate. Now we know: Banner transforms into the Savage Hulk mid-sequence, and the footage strongly suggests he isn't doing it of his own accord.
Sadie Sink — whose character remains officially unnamed — is seen mirroring the Hulk's movements in a way that implies some form of telepathic or mind-control ability. It's an unsettling piece of visual storytelling, and it's sent fan theories spiralling. Many are convinced Sink is playing Jean Grey, given the hooded appearance and the sheer psychic force on display — though Marvel has stayed tight-lipped on the matter.
Mark Ruffalo joins a stacked newcomer lineup that also includes Jon Bernthal — whose Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, apparently gets a call from a very desperate Spider-Man at some point — alongside Liza Colón-Zayas, Tramell Tillman, and Marvin Jones III. The Scorpion also makes a significant appearance, and The Hand, the shadowy ninja organisation familiar from the Netflix Marvel series, are lurking in the mix too.
Two Hooded Figures and a Villain Nobody Can See
As if that weren't enough to be getting on with, the trailer introduces not one but two mysterious hooded figures causing chaos across New York. Sink's character has been skulking about in earlier promotional material, but now a second figure — dressed entirely in black — has entered the frame. Who they are and how they connect to the film's "powerful villain no one can even see" referenced in the synopsis is anyone's guess.
What's increasingly clear is that Cretton is weaving a layered, emotionally grounded story beneath all the blockbuster spectacle — one that takes Peter Parker's isolation seriously while still delivering the kind of jaw-dropping set pieces that Marvel fans turn up for.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings intocinemas on 31 July.
