One of the key things that has made the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies really stick with fans is that, unlike the previous two actors to play the character, he was fully entrenched in a world with other Marvel heroes. When Holland wasn’t wall-crawling with the Avengers in their movies, they were appearing in his. Iron Man, Nick Fury, and Doctor Strange all made major appearances in the solo Spider-Man movies, and this summer’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day is set to be no different, with even more familiar faces sharing the screen with the friendly neighborhood hero.
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There’s a big difference with Spider-Man: Brand New Day and the previous films, though, which is the spell cast by Doctor Strange at the end of No Way Home. In that moment, Holland’s Peter Parker made a major sacrifice by having the sorcerer conjure a spell to make everyone who ever knew him forget him. Not forget Spider-Man, but forget him, Peter Parker. From the footage we’ve seen so far, it appears ot have worked with MJ and Ned being totally unaware of their history with him. That said, Tom Holland has confirmed one person DOES remember Peter Parker, with theories pointing toward it being The Hulk, and if that’s true, the strongest Avenger just got stronger.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day Might Make The Hulk Even Stronger in the MCU
Let’s assume that Tom Holland’s big tease for Spider-Man: Brand New Day IS that The Hulk is the only person who remembers Peter Parker. If that turns out to be true, it carries a major implication that The Hulk in the MCU is somehow impervious to the effects of Magic. Given the Hulk’s previous encounters with magic and spells in the MCU (both with the Mind Stone in The Avengers and Scarlet Witch in Avengers: Age of Ultron), it would mark some character progression for him across the entire franchise.
One could perhaps argue that maybe The Hulk was buried in Banner’s mind at the time of the spell, and thus he wasn’t actually present when the spell took place. The inconsistencies in Banner’s appearances since Avengers: Endgame make this tough to figure out, timeline-wise, but it would certainly be a possibility. But the problem with this potential explanation is that it would require some extra flexible back bending to really make it work, when it would be just as easy to note that the Hulk’s strength isn’t just raw muscle, but a mind fortified against magic.
If this is what comes to pass, it would signal that The Hulk’s abilities as a character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe easily make him one of the most powerful in the canon. That said, it’s worth noting the rumors that Spider-Man: Brand New Day will include Jean Grey, who appears to be able to take over The Hulk in some way, or at the very least provoke him and cause him to turn into the “Savage Hulk.” So even if the Hulk is safe from magic, he could easily be susceptible to actual psychic attacks. Despite this, though, a version of The Hulk that is as strong as he is and cannot be hindered by magic means he’s incredbly powerful.
The reason that some Marvel fans believe that The Hulk is actually the character who still remembers Peter Parker is that there’s actually precedent for this in the pages of Marvel comics. Previously, Peter Parker’s identity was revealed to the world in the Civil War crossover event, but the “One More Day” storyline saw him make a deal with Mephisto to bring his Aunt May back to life in exchange for his marriage to Mary Jane. One of the results was that the world forgot Spider-Man’s secret identity.
Flash forward to the one-shot comic Immortal Hulk: Great Power #1, a comic that was published in 2020 (before the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home). In the pages of this story, Spider-Man and the Hulk share an actually sweet moment together, where the green goliath confirms that he actually remembers that Spider-Man’s secret identity is Peter Parker, even though Bruce Banner himself has forgotten him.
There’s another potential problem here, though, assuming this is what ends up happening in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. To date, Spider-Man and The Hulk haven’t really shared the screen in the MCU in any real way. Both characters have been a part of the same scenes in Avengers: Endgame, but there was never a moment where Spider-Man and Hulk spoke to each other in any kind of terms, let alone friendly ones. In short, there would be no reason for The Hulk to know Peter Parker is Spider-Man, at least based on their previous history.
So the question remains, assuming that it’s revealed that The Hulk is the one who remembers Peter Parker is Spider-Man, how will the MCU actually explain this? Perhaps, like the comics, they simply won’t, it will just be matter of fact, but as noted, if this stands, it would make The Hulk even more powerful than he already is, maybe too powerful.
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